


Loving the Turian: A Citadel Love Story

by DaydreamsAndNightmares



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, F/M, Interspecies Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-10 05:46:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2013303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaydreamsAndNightmares/pseuds/DaydreamsAndNightmares
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doctor Lea Reed works in a clinic down at the Wards on the Citadel. She meets a certain Turian C-SEC officer and they fall in love. Then he joins Commander Shepard in his fight against the Reapers and goes jetting off all around the galaxy. Can their love survive? </p><p>This story runs parallel to the Mass Effect games, it's kind of a side plot, so it will be easier to understand if you're familiar with the games. I took some liberties with the ending, though.</p><p>Disclaimer: Just to be clear, this work is fanfiction. Mass Effect and all its lovely characters belong to Bioware, I'm just playing with them a little. I'll put them back in the box when I'm done, I promise! </p><p>Doctor Lea Reed is an original character created by me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loving the Turian: A Citadel Love Story

”Hey, that sexy Turian is checking you out!”

          Lea looked at the doorway. After a full night-shift at the Wards emergency room, she couldn’t imagine sparking anyone’s interest. Her boring beige coveralls felt funky and her hair was a mess. At least her lab coat was clean, but that was only because she had changed it a few hours before, after a toddler threw up on her.

            She glanced over at Sam, who was still making eyes at the Turian. Somehow the black nurse made the same beige overalls look like a fashion statement, not work clothes. Sexy Turian, eh? Maybe things were looking up? What made a Turian sexy, she wondered. The specimen in the doorway was tall and wiry, with ripples of taunt muscle showing between armour plates. There was a feline grace to him, accentuated by the blue tattoos on his face. She shivered as his gaze fell on her again. There was something about Turians that always made her aware of the fact that they had evolved from predators, and humans had not.  

             ”Sam, you do know that he can hear you? Turians have very acute hearing,” she said.

              Sam didn’t even have the grace to blush. Not that she would; if the tales of her sexual escapades were to be believed, she had been with everything from Asari to Krogans, the former of which Lea found anatomically improbable, but who was she to say? Sam gave the Turian a flirty wave and headed over to check on the Quarian who had ripped her protective environmental suit and was already running a fever. Poor kid, just days out on her pilgrimage.

              ”Get a sepsis panel on her, Sam, I want a full work-up; blood, urine, and 3D-scans. We’ll start the antibiotics right after the second blood cultures. And get her in ISO, we don’t want her catching every bug around here!”

                ”Sure, Doc. Anything else?”

                 Lea looked through the charts on her portable viewer. No, the toddler with gastroenteritis had left, as had the Krogan she had stiched up earlier. The Quarian was the only one she hadn’t yet examined, and she didn’t want to do that without a suit on in ISO. She could probably leave that to Doctor Channing, as her shift was ending in a few minutes anyway.

               ”No, I think I’m done. Channing will be along shortly anyway, I think I’ll let him take over.”

                She walked over to the Turian. ”Hello, I’m Doctor Lea Reed. How may I be of assistance?”

               He held out his hand and she shook it. Many of the C-SEC officers had adopted the Terran greeting over the years, at least when dealing with humans.

              ”Garrus Vakarian, C-SEC. I have a banged-up merc down in holding. Need someone to patch him up. ”

              Lea cursed under her breath. Five minutes left on her shift, and this? She had been looking forwards to going home, climbing in her nice warm bunk , maybe ordering a pizza. Well, nothing for it. She sighed. ” All right, I’ll get my kit. Hey Sam, they need me in lock-up. Any sign of Channing yet?”

              ”Yeah, he’s just changing. Go on, I’ll get him up to speed on the Quorian.”

              She grabbed her case and tossed in some sedatived, pain meds, and medi-gel. They’d probably want a tox screen too, so she added a kit to her bag. She shrugged on her labcoat. There was something hard in the pocket. Oh right, the sedative for the Krogan. Well, no matter, she could get rid of it when she got back.

           ”Ok, let’s go.”

 

She  followed the Turian out of the Wards. He was a quiet one. They entered the lift in silence. She adjusted the strap on her pack and double-checked that  she had remembered the tox kit. One couldn’t be too careful after a thirty-six hour shift, her memory usually turned to swiss cheese after only twenty-four. She looked up to see the Turian studying her. She was too tired for subtle. Or polite. ”What?” she asked.

             ”My apologies, Doctor, I didn’t mean to stare. I just wondered about the coat. Most medics use coveralls or sterile smocks.”

               She felt stupid for snapping his head off. ”Oh yeah, it’s kind of an affectation of mine. All Earth doctors used to wear them once. It just gets so damn cold here on the station, and I feel more comfortable wearing it than a cardigan when I’m on duty. I’m planet-bred, you know, all this just doesn’t come naturally.” His mandible twitched. Was that a smile? She could never be sure with the aliens.

             ”I’ve worked here so long, that I sometimes forget. For me, this is home. After a while, full-g starts to feel unnatural, as does a normal climate.” The elevator came to a stop. ”We’re here.”

              He stopped outside the C-SEC office. ”So, you’ve done this before, right? The perpetrator is a merc, one of the Blue Suns. He’s dangerous, so watch yourself. I don’t want you taking any risks. There will be two C-SEC officers in with you the whole time.”

               She nodded. ”No worries, Officer Vakarian. I’ll get it done as fast and as safely as possible.”

                He waved at the officer at the gate as they entered. They walked past a few cells, most of them empty.  An Asari was sleeping in one, and when they passed another, a Krogan rushed towards the plasglass making it rattle. Lea jumped but Vakarian just laughed. He rapped the glass with his pistol. ”Krogan-proof, Wrog. You know that. Now wait your damn turn.”

               They reached the last cell. Vakarian stopped in front of it and motioned the guard to follow them in. Lea could see a Batarian sitting in one corner, with massive bruises  and cuts on his face and what looked like a broken upper limb. They entered the cell. Lea felt absurdly tiny walking in between the two towering Turians. At least the prisoner wouldn’t see her as a threat.

               Officer Vakarian put his hand on his gun. ”All right Brala, no tricks. You just let the nice lady tend to your wounds now. If you try anything, I’ll be more than happy to blow your head or some other important body part off. You know how much I enjoy a good head shot, don’t you, hmm?”

               The Batarian shot a look filled with hate at the C-SEC officer and tested his cuffs. Lea put her pack down, took the portable diagnostic scanner, and turned it on. As she approached the Batarian growled at her and narrowed the eyes that weren’t swolled shut. Now this was going well. She held her arms out a little, showing him the scanner. Open body language, that’s it. ”Mr Brala, was it? I’m Doctor Reed. I’m here to offer you medical assistance. Is it  all right if I examine your wounds? Please?”

               The Batarian grunted. She took that as assent and approached him cautiously. The scanner hummed as she studied the read-out.  Mostly minor contusions and cuts, and the wrist was indeed broken. ”Officer? Most of these cuts will be fine with a bit of antiseptic and medi-gel, but he has a fractured wrist. I need to set it and knit the bone, but the cuffs will have to come off for that.” 

               Vakarian didn’t look happy, but nodded. She cleaned  and bandaged the cuts first and then motioned the guard to remove the force-cuffs. To her surprise the Batarian let her clean the arm and give him the numbing jab with no problems. ”I need one of you to pull the other way when I set it?” Both Turians seemed to be unwilling to surrender their guns. ”Come on, it’ll take forever to get a nurse up here.”

                ”Go on, I’ll cover him.” Vakarian motioned the guard to help her. The guard holstered his gun and took a firm grip of the prisoner’s  upper arm.

                  Lea talked to her patient, explaining the procedure. No reason not to reassure him, even if he was a mercenary. ”Ok. So the wrist should feel numb now. You’re going to feel the bone move, but it won't hurt, much. After it’s done, I can mend the break with the bone knitter, but if we don’t set it, it’ll heal wrong.” The Batarian nodded. She turned to the guard. ”A nice, steady force is what I’m looking for. All right, let’s begin.” She felt his wrist experimentally, and felt the break, a dorsal dislocation, textbook stuff. She pulled steadily and pressed the bone into place. The patient didn’t let out a peep. Mercs were tough, apparently.  She had the guard hold the bone in place and used the bone knitter to bind the ends together. ”Good as new. You used to need a cast, but nowadays you don’t. Just take it easy for a few weeks, don’t do any heavy lifting.” She realized how stupid it sounded right after she said it. Well, he wouldn’t be doing any heavy lifting in lock-up, now would he?

                   She was just taking the tox kit from her bag when the merc made his move. The Turian guard was putting the cuffs back on the prisoner when the Batarian punched him, sending the cuffs flying. Lea heard Vakarian curse. He couldn’t shoot while the two men struggled on the floor, he could hit the guard. The merc  roared and knocked the guard’s head on the table, then tripped him up, and used his own momentum to throw him at Vakarian. It all happened very fast.  In a  second the merc had appropriated the guard’s gun, pulled Lea up by the back of her coveralls to a standing position, and locked her in place with an arm around her throat so tight  she could hardly breathe. He smelled so bad up close that it made her gag.  She felt the cold barrel of a gun on her temple. Lea knew that she should be frightened, and she was, but foremost on her mind was indignation. How dare he, when she just fixed his arm? Bastard!

                  Vakarian had his pistol up. ”Let the girl go, Brala. Now.”

                 The Batarian tightened his hold. Lea couldn’t see him, but she could hear the sneer in his voice. ”Why would I? She’s my ticket out of here. Dead doc will look bad on your record, Vakarian. Now you let me walk out of here  and on a ship to Omega  and maybe I set the girl free. Once we get there” He caressed her face with the gun. ”After I play with her a bit, of course. Aria’s always looking for new dancers at her club. You dance, right, human? As well as you knit bones?”

                  Vakarian’s eyes were steel. The guard had awakened  and was sitting up, looking dazed. ”You. Backup. Now,” Vakarian growled. The guard took off down the corridor.

                  Lea looked at the Turian. It was a stalemate.  No way was C-SEC going to let this bastard walk. Not even if it cost her life. C-SEC didn’t negotiate with terrorists. Even if they had, she didn’t particularly relish the thought of an unscheduled vacation to the seediest bars on Omega. Vakarian looked supremely capable. If she could just give him an in, a distraction, something, she might still get out of this. That was when she remembered the dermsprays of sedative in her pocket. She patted the fabric. Yes! They were there! Now she needed to distract the Batarian enough to get to them. She struggled a bit, not enough for him to shoot her, she hoped. ”Fuck you, you stinking piece of space-rot. So this is the thanks I get, you disgusting..”

                He pressed the gun tighter on her temple. ”Shut up, bitch. I’m going to enjoy teaching you some manners. It’s a long ride to Omega.”

                 Her hand closed on the cylinder. She flipped it right way up and primed it. Now to communicate her intentions to Vakarian. She widened her eyes and looked pointedly down at her right pocket.  He seemed to get the message as he started to taunt the Batarian again with renewed fervor. The Batarian’s grip relaxed a bit. Vakarian was getting to him. He was pissed. If she was going to do this, it had better be now. She pretended to slump into a faint and jammed the sedative into the merc’s thigh. He grabbed her by the hair and gave her a backhanded blow with his gun. Lea went down, seeing stars. It hurt like hell.  The stars rescinded just in time for her to see the Batarian fly across the room. He hit the wall with a satisfying crunch.  Two C-SEC officers rushed over and put him in restraints. Vakarian walked over to Lea and offered her his hand.  She allowed him to pull her up and touched her cheek. A bruise, no cut. Nothing felt broken, she could move her jaw, even though it felt stiff.

                ”You all right? ” Vakarian asked.

                ”Yes, I think so.”

                ”It was stupid to take the cuffs off. I… apologize.”

                Lea rubbed her sore cheek sheepishly. ”No, it was my fault. I asked you to do that.”

                 The Turian’s face was hard. ”But it was my responsibility. I didn’t have to agree.”

                Lea walked over to the Batarian. He was out cold. ”Looks like he’ll be out for a while.”

            ”Yes, that’s what usually happens when I punch people.”

            ”Well, it might also have something to do with the fact that I shot him up with enough tranqualizer to bring down a full-grown Krogan.”

            ”What!” Vakarian let out a roaring laugh. ”Maybe you can take better care of yourself then it looks, Doc.”

             She walked over to the merc and took out her scanner.

            ”What are you doing?”

            ”He’s still my patient, isn’t he? I’m checking for concussion. At least you didn’t break the arm again.” She twisted a flab of skin and the merc twitched and mumbled something. ”He’s just unconscious. You’ll need to monitor him for eight to ten hours, until the sedative’s out of his system.” She rummaged around her pack and then took the blood samples for the tox screen. After stowing the samples she pulled out a monitor and fiddled with it. It came to life with a hum and floated next to the prisoner. ”That’s the Bee. It will give him a mild electric shock every 15 minutes to see that he's responding. It’s milder for humans, little bit more for Turians. Nothing dangerous, just uncomfortable. When he’s oriented enough to smash it against the wall, he’ll be fine.” She walked out with Vakarian following. At the door she turned to him. ”After that debacle I think you owe me a drink. Or maybe I owe you a drink. How about it?”

              He looked a bit flustered but pleased. ”All right. I get off my shift at 1800 hours. See you at the Casino, that bar on the upper floor? And I’m buying.”

              ”Fair enough. See you then.” She felt his gaze as she walked away. Wow, a date with the sexy Turian? Who’d have thought?

               At the last minute he yelled.”Hey Doc. You said mild shocks for humans and a bit more for Turians, What do you set it on for Batarians?”

                 Lea looked over her shoulder with an innocent look on her face. ”For this one? I might have set it to Krogan by mistake.” There was a loud yelp from the cell. She could hear Vakarian laughing all the way to the lifts. 

  

She checked the chrono when she got back to her flat. She had nine hours before she had to leave. Plenty of time for some beauty sleep. She was feeling wired from the run-in with the Batarian, so she watched an old Blasto movie and ate some reconstituted fungal protein that was supposed to mimic Moo Shoo pork. It reminded her that Turian physiology was based on dextro-amino acids, so she made a note on the kitchen-computer grocery list to order something suitable. She had nothing that would be potable to him at the moment. Well, perhaps alcohol. Already inviting him up, are we? Get over yourself, Lea. Well, no harm in being prepared. She downed a glassful of Asari tea that was supposed to be relaxing and found herself drifting off. She blearily thumbed the computer to wake her in six hours and pulled an afgan over herself. Sleep came almost immediately.

           

Lea woke, refreshed. A glance at the chrono showed her that the alarm would ring in five minutes, so she turned it off. A curious thing, this internal clock of hers. Even out in space, light-years from Earth, with the 20 hour Citadel day, she still woke up before the alarm.  Humans were adaptable creatures. She stripped and got it the shower, luxuriating in the feel of the warm water. After two years of sonic showers on the old rustbucket Ariadne, she could appreciate a good shower. Good thing that whoever had built the Citadel had installed hot water. Not that the Ariadne had been all bad, it had paid her student loans in one go and she had secured passage to the Citadel for free, as well as gotten crucial clinical experience in treating vacuum exposure and space-freeze. The captain, Tanaka, had even gotten her the job in the Wards. It was lots of night shifts, but that was fine, out here in space, who could tell the difference? She loved the hustle and bustle of the Citadel, different races coming and going, the thrill of discovering something new every day. Some things, like Asari cocktails, were great, others, like Krogan sushi, not so much. The possibilities for scientific work were astounding; she had applied to dozens of projects in hope of beginning work on her dissertation, but she hadn’t heard back yet from any of them. She had never liked staying in one place for too long, maybe a stint in one of the Asari systems might be nice next. There was so much of the universe to see.

            She dismissed the random thoughts from her mind and concentrated on the task at hand: the eternal question, what to wear? Lea opened her wardrobe and shifted the clothes around. She tried to recall what she had worn on her last date and found that that she couldn’t. What had it been, over two years ago? Before the Ariadne, for certain.  She hadn’t found anyone compatible there, so it had been at least that long. There had been that one night stand with the marine sergeant on Io. That had to have been it. She had worn her coveralls for that one, well for about the first five minutes.

              Maybe she was going about this the wrong way. What would Officer Vakarian…No, Garrus, like? She had no idea. Turian females seemed to prefer combat armour to slinky dresses, but he had agreed to go out with her, knowing full well that she was Terran. For a moment she debated calling Sam, but then decided that she couldn’t handle the merciless teasing that would have to be endured before any real advice would be offered.  She had a few flowy Asari dresses, but they seemed too showy for this occasion, and coveralls just wouldn’t do.  She pulled out a minidress by an Earth designer.  Ah, this had potential.  It was battleship-gray,  formed of lots of diaphanous layers,with metallic sequins forming an ombre effect from the neckline and curling into abstract swirls around the hem. It was an appropriate length, falling almost to her knees. She pulled it on, added some tights and her favorite station boots, and dabbed on some make-up. The turquoise eye-liner complimented her green eyes. She ran a brush through her chin-length blond hair and let it settle as it would. She had never been very good at styling her hair. Too much trouble. The chrono showed her that it was almost time to leave. Her stomach growled, so she bolted a protein bar and some juice and then brushed her teeth. Time to go, then. She grabbed her clutch and called a cab.

           

The shuttle left her right in front of the casino.  Everything seemed to be in full swing, and there were lots of people about. Neon lights flashed from advertisements and loud music blared from hidden loudspeakers. Still quieter than Purgatory. She walked through the main floor. People were gambling and others were sipping cocktails and making small talk. There seemed to be some kind of party going on in one area that had been closed off from the riff-raff with velvet ropes. 

              She ascended the staircase, glad that she hadn’t put on heels. At least she wouldn’t trip and fall flat on her face. She felt a pleasant tingle of excitement in the pit of her stomach. It had been too long since that sergeant, she needed this!

            She came to the top of the stairs and found the bar. It was very crowded, and for a moment she didn’t see the Turian, but then she saw him waving at her from a corner table.  She made her way over and sat down opposite him.

            ”Hey. You made it, I see? Any more trouble from that Batarian?” He was still in his C-SEC uniform. He must have come straight from work.

            ”No, but he did smash that monitor, just like you said. Invented some creative new curse-words before that, though.” He looked her up and down appreciatively. ”That’s some dress Doc. You clean up nice.”

            ”Thank you, I think.” She hoped that he didn’t think she was trying too hard. Privately, she thought that he filled out his armour in a very satisfying way.

              ”So, about that drink. What do you prefer?”

              ”Something not too deadly, surprise me? Just make sure it’s safe for humans.”

              He walked over to the bartender and exchanged a few words with him. The bartender got to work and soon Garrus returned with a small glass of a golden liquer for himself and a tall glass of something pale-green with frosty pieces of fruit in it for her. ”It’s called a Citadel Sling, he said it’s his speciality, apparently it’s very popular among the ladies.” he raised his glass. ”Here’s to one more merc being off the spaceways.”

              She clinked her glass to his and took a cautious sip. It was smooth, tart, and citrusy. Not bad. ”Thanks, this really hits the spot. So, tell me a bit about yourself, Officer Garrus Vakarian. How did you end up here on the Citadel?” It was awkward at first, but they soon got past it.  They chatted for a while about his job at C-SEC, which he was happy with for the most part, but found all the red tape tiring. She learned that he was originally from Palaven, the Turian homeworld, and had a sister and father there. After a few more Citadel Slings she found herself loosening up and told a funny story about the time that she had travelled for two weeks alone on a Krogan transport ship with a pyjak infestation, and how in the end she felt so sorry for the pyjaks that she smuggled one of them out under her shirt and kept it as a pet for many years.  It was going very well, until his comm beeped.

                He frowned apologetically and answered it.”Vakarian.”

                ”Sir, we have a situation in the Presidium. Some kind of fight between biotics and marines on shore leave. We need everybody, now”

                ”All right, I’m on my way.” He turned to Lea. ”I’m so sorry, I have to take care of this. I would like to take you home on the way, if that would suit you. It’s the least I can do. I wouldn’t like you wandering around alone at this hour.”

                ”That’s fine with me, but I’d be perfectly all right taking a shuttle if it’s more convenient.”

                ”No, I’d feel better this way.” He took a dermspray from a pocket and pressed it into his neck. ”To disperse the alcohol,” he explained. ”A horrible waste of good Turian brandy.”

                 They passed the ride in companionable silence. When they arrived at her quarters, he got out of the shuttle to say good-bye. He pulled her close and ran a gentle finger down her cheekbone, where a slight bruise was still showing. ”I’m sorry that you got hurt today. I should have been able to protect you. ”

                 She shivered.”It doesn’t hurt too much. And I have to be able to take care of myself.” She tried to make light of it. ”Can’t always have handsome Turians bailing me out of trouble. I’ve been meaning to take self-defence classes, but I just never got around to it.” She was suddenly very conscious of his hand resting lightly on her hip. 

                 ”I could teach you some basics, if you want? I’ve been training since I was fifteen. All Turians have.”

                  She looked at him. Was he serious? ”Well, sure! That would be great!”

                 ”I will send the details to your terminal, then. ” His arms tightened. ”I’ve never dated a human before, but I understand that you have a custom of ending a date with a kiss?"

                 ”Well, yes. A successful date, at least.” He had read up on dating humans. How sweet!

                  He looked at her quizzically. ”I’ve enjoyed your company very much, Lea Reed. Would you consider this evening satisfactory?”

                 In answer, she ran her hand through his fringe, admiring the silky feel of it, and proceeded to kiss him. It was different from kissing a human, he didn’t have lips so much as a beak and the mandibles did get in the way, but it confirmed her initial gut reaction. There was chemistry between them. From his reaction he felt it too. He let her go with obvious reluctance.

                 ”Until next time, then.”

                ”Good-bye, Garrus. And thank you.”

                She watched him speed off towards the Presidium. Then it hit her. Had she just agreed to wrestle a Turian? On purpose? And not in the fun way?

 

It was almost two weeks before she took Vakarian up on his offer. They both worked irregular hours and it was hard to find a time that suited them both. They met in the Presidium Commons. Lea liked to run in the parks once or twice a week and Garrus had decided to join her. He had booked a training space at one of the many exercise facilities that the Citadel offered for the lesson afterwards. It was a beautiful Citadel morning, as always. Lea did her usual stretches and turned to see the Turian approaching. It was odd to see him wearing casual exercise gear instead of the C-SEC uniform and sidearm.

            ”Hey! You ready?” He hesitated, uncertain of how to proceed, and she broke the tension by punching him in the arm. ”Last one over the bridge is a space jellyfish!” She promptly took off before he had a chance to react. With those long legs of his, she could use a head start.

            He caught up to her on the bridge. ”That’s cheating, Doc,” he huffed. ”No matter, I’ll take it out of your hide on the training mats. I’ll have you flat on your back and begging for mercy in no time. Well, that went somewhere dirtier than I intended.” He barked a laugh.

            She grinned. ”Who said that I mind?” She slowed down, and they fell into a comfortable jog.  ”Shall we do two laps  and head to the training room?”

            ”Yes, that sounds good.”

                The laps went quickly as they joked and laughed the whole way around. She liked his dry wit and sardonic comments about the political games that got played on the Citadel. He was self-depracating almost to a fault and had a very clear moral compass. He was the kind of man who wouldn’t take the easy way out or betray his ideals lightly. She found herself falling more and more in love with his personality the more time she spent with him.

            They arrived at the Citadel Sports Center in plenty of time to claim their reservation. The room was quite large, too large for their needs. A few men were sparring with Asari fighting pikes at the far end of the room. Lea admired them for a moment. The battle was almost like a dance.

            Garrus touched her shoulder to get her attention. ”I thought I’d teach you some basic leg and arm locks and how to get out of them. How about we start with the one that merc used? ”

            She nodded in assent and soon they were hard at work. Once she had gotten the hang of shifting her balance and breaking an attackers grip and falling down properly as not to injure herself, Garrus moved to basic punches and blocks. At the end of the hour she felt like ground beef. Of course, all of her feeble attacks had been easily evaded by him, and every round of sparring seemed to end with her pinned under 200 pounds of Turian, which said Turian seemed to enjoy immensly. She sighed. ”I think I might need a lot of work to get anywhere  with this. Are you certain you want to take on a project this hopeless?”

            ”I don’t give up easily, and neither should you. You were very…enthusiastic. That’s a good place to start. We should do this at least once a week, if you want to see progress.  I can give you some basic excercises to do at home, too.”

            ”I guess we can give it a go.”

            ”Same time next week, then?”

 

To her credit, Lea kept at it. After a few lessons, a crowd began to gather around them when they trained. Garrus said it was because lots of people were interested in self-defence. Lea said it was because lots of people were interested in seing her fall flat on her ass in dozens of new and entertaining ways. Then a few teenagers asked if they could join in, and after that the word spread like wildfire. Soon Garrus was running a self-defence class for two dozen people. Lea found this to be a good thing, because she now had sparring partners of the same skill level to practice with.  The skills she learned came in handy, as the emergency-room where  she worked had a high amount of drug addicts and antisocial types in its clientele. She had been able to nip two potentially dangerous incidents in the bud already. It wasn’t that violence solved problems, but the feeling that she could handle herself if it came to it gave her the confidence to solve most confrontations with words.

            She had a few more dates with Garrus. Once they went to Purgatory where she found that he was the better dancer, and another time he invited her out with some of his C-SEC buddies to the shooting rink so she could learn to handle a weapon. Their friendship deepened. Then the mess with Saren happened, and before she knew it Garrus had quit C-Sec and jetted off after Saren with the first human Spectre, Commander Shepard. He had left a brief communique on her terminal, saying that he would contact her when he got back to the Citadel. She had learned to know Garrus well enough to understand that this was something that he had to do, and she didn’t want to stand in his way. So she settled into her normal routine of work and exercise. Thankfully most of the people who had trained with her and Garrus wanted to continue in spite of having lost their instructor, and they found an ex-marine who wanted to make some extra cash to take Garrus’ place. They started zero-g training, which Lea found fascinating. She missed Garrus, but there was enough going on that she found other distractions to occupy her time. 

 

It had been weeks when her comm chirped with a message from Garrus. He was back on the Citadel and wanted her to join him for drinks later. He mentioned that he wanted to introduce her to the Commander. The timing was tricky, because her shift ended only an hour before the time that he suggested, but she sent him a message that she would try to make it. While she rushed home to shower and change, she started to feel excited about seeing him. This time she picked a tight black-and-silver dress that showed off her newly-defined muscles, a perk of the combat-training regime. Her leather jacket and boots went on next . She checked herself out in the mirror. Hopefully the ensemble hit the right balance between sexy and slutty. She decided to go with it, as there wasn’t time to change, anyway.

            She gathered many admiring looks on her way to the bar. Maybe the dress was too slutty. She was relieved to see Garrus at his usual table. He was sitting with a Krogan male, who looked kind of scary, and a man in N7 armour. Garrus came to meet her. He drew her into a bear hug and held her for a long moment.”Gods, I’ve missed you. You look even more beautiful that the last time I saw you. ”

              She squeezed him tightly and inhaled his scent, which reminded her of cinnamon.”I missed you too.”

               He groaned. ”I hate to do this, but we should really go  over there. I promised to introduce you.”

              They walked over to the table and Garrus made introductions. ”Commander Shepard, Wrex, this is Doctor Lea Reed.  Lea, Commander John Shepard and Urdnot Wrex.”

              She shook hands with them both. ”Pleased to meet you.”

            ”You too, Garrus talks about you a lot,” Shepard said.

            Wrex grunted.”I’m impressed, Vakarian. Maybe there’s more to you than meets the eye if you can get a girl like that.” He grinned at Lea. ”If you want to stop slumming it with Mr. By-The-Book over there, I’m available to show you good time.”

            Lea laughed. She could see that the Krogan just wanted to give Garrus a hard time. Maybe this was his idea of a compliment. ”Sorry, I’m very happy with Garrus here.”

            Shepard grinned. ”How about a round of drinks? Beer okay with everyone?”

            They nodded and he  signalled the bartender. Garrus pulled Lea into his lap, and put his arm around her possessively. Maybe he hadn’t taken Wrex’s little joke as graciously as it had seemed.

            ”So, can you tell me about your adventures out there, or is it classified?” Lea asked.

            Wrex immediately launched into a highly entertaining version of the events in the Noveria hot labs, remembering to talk up Garrus in the process. Quite a wing-man Garrus had there.

            As the evening progressed Lea decided that she liked Shepard very much. He actually reminded her a lot of Garrus. They made a good team. Even Wrex was beginning to grow on her. 

            ”Hey, it’s my round, next. If you’ll excuse me boys.” She walked over to the bar and dumped the empty pitchers on the counter. ”Another one of the same,” she said and stood to the side to wait. Two Terran men in lounge suits came up to the bar. She tried to move out of their way, but it became obvious that they wanted to talk to her.

            ”Hey gorgeous. Want to trade up?” One of them grabbed her arm. ”What are you doing hanging around with those dirty aliens, anyway. ”

               She shook off his arm. Cerberus armbands. Oh great. ”Leave me alone. I wouldn’t come with you if you were the last man alive.”

                The thug got a dangerous look in his eye. ”This one needs a lesson. Fraternizing with aliens, that’s sick. Are you fucking him too, you little slut? What you need is a real man and not that praying mantis.” He tried to drag her off with him. She saw Garrus start to rise. This could turn ugly if he joined in. Lots of those armbands in the crowd. So she reacted, just like she had practiced. Before the man knew what had hit him, he was lying on the floor with her boot on his neck. The other one howled and rushed at her. She spun to the side, avoiding him easily, and gave him a good kick in the behind, using his own momentum to send him crashing into a table. He stayed down. The first man had scrambed up while she was occupied with the other one and he took a swing at her. She blocked it, but the force of the blow jarred her arm, rendering it momentarily useless. She feinted to the right and swept his legs out from under him. The man fell down again. She twisted his arm up behind him.”I don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t stop, I’ll dislocate your shoulder for you. So this is how this will play out: I let you go, and you and your buddy walk away. Agreed?” She tightened her grip, making him howl.

               ”All right, lady, jeez. You’re a disgrace to humanity, but whatever. I’ll leave. Just lemme go!”

                She released him and he scrambled up. She didn’t take her eyes off him before he gathered up his friend and stumbled towards the exit, helped along by security personnel who had finally showed up. Where had they been when she needed them? She felt a hand on her shoulder.

                  ”Nicely done. You’ve progressed since we last trained,” Garrus said. He looked as proud as any instructor to see a pupil succeed.

                  ”I didn’t want it to turn into a brawl. I like this bar. It’s an even mix of Cerberus and aliens tonight. Maybe we should leave?”

                   Garrus looked around. ”That would probably be the sensible thing to do. But first…” He took her in his arms and gave her a very long, very passionate kiss, gathering angry looks from the Cerberus crew. ” I’m not afraid of those thugs. Nobody has the right to drive us off. Now let’s have that last drink just to show them that we’re not intimidated.”

                  They did just that, and Lea endured a lot of good-natured ribbing from Wrex on defending Garrus’ honor.Then Shepard decided that he had to be getting back to the Normandy, so they called it a night and said their goodbyes. Wrex and Shepard headed for the ship and Lea was left alone with Garrus. Finally, she thought. Maybe it was the rush from the fight, or just being near him after so long, but she gathered her nerve. She leaned into him and stood on tiptoe to whisper into his ear. ”How about we go to my place? I want you, right now!”

 

The ride over in the shuttle was a blur. The driver had to clear his throat three times to get their attention when they reached their destination. Garrus paid him and they tumbled out and somehow made their way into the elevator. Lea dropped her key card twice before she got the apartment door open.

                   Once they were inside he pushed her against the wall, nibbled at her neck, and buried his hand into her hair. His tongue was rough, like a cat’s. The feel of it on her neck drove her crazy, never mind what it would do in more sensitive areas. She clung to him to keep upright, as her legs had suddenly turned to jelly. She groaned and slipped her hands under his tunic, feeling the rough skin and plating covering firm muscle. She could feel his excitement through the thin layers of cloth that separated them.

            With difficulty, he pulled back. He lifted her chin and looked at her intently. ”Are you certain you want this? If we go further, I  don’t think I’ll be able to stop. I don’t want to hurt you,” he said hoarsely.

            Lea took a moment to catch her breath. ””Yes. I want this. I want you. Don’t worry, I can take it. Humans and Turians are physically compatible, if that’s what you’re worried about.” She had gotten top marks in xenobiology at university. Time to put theory into practice.

            He stroked her hair, still looking unsure.”I’ve never been with an alien. I never even considered it, before you. This isn’t about just kinky alien sex for me, I hope you know that. I think we’re compatible in other ways. I really like you, Doc.”

            ”I really like you too, Garrus. I think I’m falling for you. The kinky alien sex is just a bonus.”

            ”So we’re really doing this?”

            ”Yeah. I mean, if you want. We don’t have to, if you’re not ready.”

            He growled. ”Oh, I’m ready.” He ran his hands up her thighs and under her dress, cupping her buttocks. ”Now this is a nice dress. Why don’t you take it off?”

            He pulled the dress over her head and she undid his tunic, taking a moment to admire his musculature. God, she wanted to kiss him all over. Why not? She ran her hands over his chest and bent to kiss it. He undid her bra with a flick of his talons and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and grabbed his fringe.

             He growled and carried her to the bed and laid her down on her back. Her panties were suddenly gone. He ran his hands over her skin and buried his face in her neck, drinking in her scent. He nibbled his way down to her breasts, and licked at a nipple with his rough tongue. She moaned and pulled him closer, raking his back with her nails.  This seemed to excite him more and he kissed his way down and parted her legs. He explored her gently and then got his tongue to work. She moaned, helpless on the mounting waves of passion. He must have watched some vids, to be this good at this. Or was this how Turians usually  made love?

               She opened her eyes to see him hovering over her, his pants gone. God, he was big, and…ridges? She moved her hands down his back and pulled him towards her. Oh please.. He entered her, slowly, with care. She moaned and arched against him. Still he held back, wary of hurting her. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him closer. He grunted and pushed deeper, the rythm on their love-making quickened.  She came, and he followed almost at the same moment, collapsing on her, he murmured something in Turian.

               Later, they lay under the covers, with Lea snuggled into the crook of his arm and her legs wrapped around one of his, trying to stay as close to him as possible. She caressed his chest, causing him to emit a noise that resembled a purr.

                He stroked he back gently. ”What are you thinking?” he asked.

                Lea smiled. ”Right now? I’m thinking that I want to chain you to this bed and never let you leave again.”

               She felt him smile into her hair. ”Mmm. I’d like nothing better, but the Normandy is leaving tomorrow, and I have to be on it.”

              She felt dissapointed. Of course she knew he had to leave, but so soon? ”Then we’ll just have to make the best of the time that we have. Do you think we could…go again?”

            A laugh rumbled in his chest. ”I think that can be arranged.”

 

Lea was off-station when the big showdown with Sovereign took place. It was a good thing, too, because she would probably have been killed, otherwise. She went through all kinds of hell watching the news broadcasts and thinking that Garrus was there, right in the middle of it. At least he knew that she was safe. He didn’t need any distractions if he was going to come out of it alive. She worried about Sam and her other co-workers. What had happened to them? The whole place was crawling with Geth. She just hoped that the Geth had no reason to go into the Wards. Maybe Sam and the others had a chance if they stayed quiet and kept out of sight?  

              Then the news came: Shepard had done the impossible and defeated a Reaper. Slowly, civilian traffic was allowed back on the Citadel. The place was in ruins, but they would rebuild. She was glad to see Sam, who had hidden in the morgue with some patients. She asked for news of Garrus, but no one knew what had happened to him. Her heart jumped in her throat every time she saw a Turian, but it was never him.

Lea went to the Embassies, like all others seeking news. There she bumped into Shepard. He was coming out of Ambassador Udina’s offices. She waved and, thankfully, he stopped. He looked the worse for wear, like he hadn’t slept for days. Maybe fighting an ancient horror did that to a man.

            Before she could speak he said: ”He’s alive. Garrus, I mean.”

            Lea collapsed against the wall. Tears of relief ran down her cheeks. ”Thank God!”

            Shepard dropped onto his haunches and put his arm around her. He was terribly comforting  for a military type.

            ”I’m sorry. It was awful, not knowing. I was so scared that he was dead.” She wiped her tears.   

            He patted her arm. ”Not Garrus, he’s a tough bastard.” He pulled her up. ”I think he went down to the Presidium to see his C-SEC buddies. They’re trying to get the office up and running again, and he volunteered to help.” A man in an Earth Allience uniform motioned to Shepard. He lifted a hand in acknowledgement. ”I’m needed here. Will you be all right finding him on your own?”

            ”Yes, thank you. Go on, I don’t want to hold you up.”

            He walked over to the soldier and was immediately mobbed by half a dozed people vying for his attention. She left him to it and headed for the Presidium, and Garrus.

 

Lea walked around for almost an hour before she found Garrus. He was helping clear some rubble off the rapid transit terminals. She approached him carefully. Was it really him?

               ”Garrus?” She shouted to be heard over the noise.

                He turned and dropped what he was doing. His face lit up when he saw her.  

                She rushed into his arms and he held her so tight  she felt her ribs creak. Conflicting emotions welled up inside of her. No, this was a happy moment, she didn’t want to cry and ruin it.

              ”Doc, you came back! I’d have sent a message but the comms are down, I didn’t know how to reach you.”

              ”Shepard told me you were here. Oh, I’m so glad you’re all right!”

              ”And you. We’re almost done here, but if you want to lend a hand, I will be all yours for the rest of the evening.”

              ”Of course.” They worked side by side amicably and Lea took every excuse to touch him and to be near him again. They were so lucky to be alive, and she resolved to show him just how happy she was to see him that night. And so she did, to their mutual satisfaction.

 

Lea had crashed onto her couch after a double-shift and was sleeping like the dead. The insistent beeping of the terminal woke her. She stumbled over to it and hit the receive button.

               ”Yes?”

               The face of a Krogan filled the screen.  ”Hey. Sorry to wake you, kid. Something’s happened.”

               Wrex? He had never called here before. Why would he… Oh god, had something happened to Garrus? She was instantly alert. ”What is it?”

              ”It’s Shepard. There’s been an accident. He’s dead.”

               That was Wrex. No sugar-coating the news. She noticed that the Krogan was very drunk. Coping in his own way with losing a friend, no doubt.  Shepard had been a good man. She was genuinely sad to hear the news, and felt guilty because a part of her was so relieved that it hadn't been Garrus.

              ”I’m so sorry. What happened?”

              ”It was typical Shepard. The ship exploded and he went back for a crew member who got trapped. Always knew he’d get himself  killed pulling someone’s ass out of the fire. Leave no man behind and all that.” The Krogan scratched his ear sheepishly. ”The reason I’m calling you is that Garrus isn’t taking it too well. We went out for a few, you know, that’s what you do, to remember a friend. He’s falling-down drunk and we got in a little fight, some idiots started mouthing off about Shepard and we kind of trashed the bar.  Good thing that the responding officer from C-SEC was a friend of his, he smoothed the thing over with the bar owner. I don’t want to leave him alone, and I’m in no shape to look after him.” The unspoken question was clear.

             ”Bring him here, I’ll put him to bed.”

              The Krogan looked relieved. ”Thanks, kid.”

 

They arrived in a half an hour. The door chimed and Lea opened it to see the Krogan supporting Garrus, who indeed would have fallen down without him. She hurried to take his other arm. It was a good thing that Wrex was there, because the Turian was in full armour and there was no way that Lea could have moved him anywhere without help. They both stank heavily of alcohol.

            ”On the bed. Nice and easy.” They got him down. He tried to get up, muttering something incoherent, and Lea pushed him back down, murmuring soothingly.

            She turned to Wrex. ”Thank you for bringing him here, you’re a good friend.” The Krogan wasn’t looking too good either. ”Hey, why don’t you take the couch, sleep it off?”

            ”Are you sure, wouldn’t want to impose?”

            ”No, it’s fine. You want something for the hangover?”

            ”Nah, I worked hard for it, I need to feel it tomorrow. For Shepard.”

            ”All right. Night then.”

            ”Night. You sure you don’t need help with Sleeping Beauty over there?”

            ”No, I’ll manage.” She tossed him a blanket and heard the couch creak as he settled in. Soon the sound of some fairly epic snoring filled the room. She shut the bedroom door to muffle it a little and turned her attention to the Turian. At least he seemed to be sleeping, not unconscious. She contemplated giving him a shot to purge the alcohol, but didn’t. Maybe he wanted to feel the hangover too. It seemed like one of those male things that she would never understand.  She removed his armour to make him more comfortable and put a glass of water and some painkillers on the night-stand. She thought for a moment and brought a trash can next to the bed, within easy reach. Then she curled up next to him.

              He stirred and pulled her close. ”Shepard’s gone. He’s really gone. I miss the crazy bastard already.” His words were slurred from the alcohol.

            ”Shh. It’s going to be all right.” She held him and lent him what comfort she could. After a while his breathing steadied and he drifted off, holding on to her for dear life. She tried to get comfortable and at last fell into an uneasy sleep.   

 

Lea knocked on the door of Garrus’ apartment. He had asked to see her about something, and she had a feeling it wasn’t good.The Turian had been growing more and more irritable after Shepard’s memorial service. All he seemed to do lately was bitch about the bureaucracy at C-SEC. He had almost been suspended for busting a diplomatic attaché for dealing Red Sand. The attaché was let go with apologies, saved by his diplomatic immunity. Garrus had been furious. She was worried about him.

               The door opened and Lea stepped in. The apartment was much like its owner, spartan and orderly, one wall taken over by Garrus’ formidable collection of weapons displayed under safety glass. A small shelf held some personal items, knick-knacks he had collected on his travels, a few antique books in Turian, cut in the typical hexagonal shape that they preferred. As weight was a problem in space travel, most of his library was electronic, like hers.

                    Garrus was cleaning a sniper rifle on his weapons bench, probably adding some mods to it. He put it down. ”Hey. I was just it the middle of some calibrations.” He looked a bit nervous. ”Take a seat. I need to tell you something.”He paused while she sat down. ”I quit C-SEC.”

                  ”What?”

                  ”I think you know I haven’t been happy there for a long time. I see the world in black and white, and I feel that what they do is mostly gray. Thing is, when I was with Shepard, we really made a difference. None of that bureaucratic crap. I want to feel like that again” He took her hand and looked at her, his blue eyes serious. ”That’s why I have to leave the Citadel. My ship leaves tomorrow.”

                  Oh shit. He was leaving her. ”What does that mean for us?” she asked carefully.

                 ”I’m going deep undercover. You won’t be able to contact me for months, maybe longer. If you try it will put both of us in danger.” He looked down. ”I understand if you want to end it. I wouldn’t expect you to wait for me.”

                  Her voice shook. ”Garrus Vakarian, you’re well  worth waiting for.”

                  He looked up, with a spark of hope. ”I don’t want to lose you either, if there’s a chance for us.”

                Lea fought back tears. In a way, she understood. He had to do what was right for him. Garrus wasn’t the kind of man who could be tied down, and it would be the fastest way to lose him to try. So she swallowed the tears and forced her voice to normalcy. ”You know what I think? I think it was about damn time you quit. That place was eating you alive.” She thought for a moment. ”Actually, this might solve a dilemma that I’ve been having. You know I’ve been applying to research installations, for my dissertation?” He nodded. ”I actually got a reply a few days ago, there’s a position open at the Univesity of Serrice, on Thessia. It’s very prestigious, I’d be studying a new grade of medi-gel and its applications on biotic injuries. It’s a two-year grant, with an option to continue. I was reluctant to leave you, but now…”

                  He looked relieved. ”The timing works out well. It would be a good career move for you. Maybe I can come visit, sometime?”

                   ”Of course. I’ll leave you the address when I find out the specifics.”

                     He took a package down from a shelf and handed it to her. She opened it and a book fell out. It was one of his Turian antiques.

                    ”It’s the history of the First Regiment. It was my favorite when I was a child. I know you don’t read Turian, but I’d like you to have it. And on a more practical note, this.” He held a heavy pistol out to her. ”It’s light, but packs a punch, at least with the mods I’ve added. It’s similar to the one you’ve trained with at the shooting range. I want you to be safe. Avoid trouble if you can, but it’s better to have this when you need it than be caught without. I’ve registered it in your name.”

                 ”Oh Garrus.” She put down the gun and leaned to embrace him. ”I’m going to miss you so much.”

                  He picked her up and carried her gently to the bed. They spent the night entangled in each others arms, conscious that it would be the last time for a long while.

 

Six months passed before Lea heard from Garrus again. Serrice was wonderful and she had settled in nicely. Her Asari colleagues had taken good care of her, inviting her to concerts and parties. Thessia being an Asari world, she had received a few advances, but when they were politely rebuffed, she was left alone. Some of her closest co-workers suspected a tragic love story, but were too polite to ask. She threw herself into her work and was able to keep Garrus off her mind.

            She kept strange hours, and came home very late one night. The blueish light of Thessia’s main moon filtered through the curtains, illuminating a figure sitting in one of  the chairs in her living room. His face was in shadow and he was holding an automatic. She froze.

            ”Don’t turn on the lights. I’m in with some fairly dangerous people right now, and no one must know I’m here.”

            That voice, like butter-soft, cured leather, she would recognize it anywhere. She relaxed.”Garrus?” Her eyes adjusted and she could see him. He was wearing an assortment of mismatched armour, most of which was very banged up. He looked every inch the ruffian. Lea grinned mischievously. She kicked her shoes off and slowly unzipped her coverall, letting it fall to the floor and walked towards him, swaying her hips. ”Oh, I’m so flustered. To come home and find a hot, ruggred Turian outlaw in my apartment with  a gun. And me, with no way to defend myself. _Anything_ could happen.” She straddled him and started undoing the straps that held his armour in place.

            ”So that’s how it is?” He buried a hand in her hair, his face registering amusement.

            ”Mmm.” She removed another piece of armour and nibbled at his neck. He let her get on with in. As she got the last piece of armour off he grabbed her roughly and pulled her against him, her back to his chest. He used one hand to hold her in place and slid the other into her panties as he bit her neck. She groaned and pressed against him, shuddering. She was ready for him, she wanted him in her, right now. She wriggled against him, trying to make him move it along. It worked as he ripped her undergarments off with a strangled cry and before she knew it  she was on the floor on her hands and knees. Then he was upon her, his rough plating scratching the soft skin on her back as he slammed into her. No gentleness this time. She had a hard time keeping upright as he moved in her, until there was no thought in her universe but him. Then the climax came and she collapsed against him with a cry. They both shuddered with release. He pulled a blanket down from the sofa and covered them  both with it. She listened to his heartbeat slow down to a regular, steady pulse. They lay there for a long time.

            ”Was I enough of an outlaw for you?” He asked jokingly while he stroked her back.

            ”Oh, yes. Girls love a bad boy.” She nipped at him playfully. ”So, how have you been?”

            ”Well, mostly. My mission is going as planned. I can’t tell you any more without putting you in danger. I had business on Thessia and I couldn’t leave without seeing you. ”

            ”I’m glad.” She told him about her work, and how much she had grown to like Serrice. When she was all talked out she curled against him and let his heartbeat lull her to sleep. She felt completely safe in his arms, like nothing could ever hurt her.

            She woke to the clicking sound of him putting his armour back on.

            He came to her and kissed her once more. ”I have to go, it’s almost morning.”

             She desperately wanted to stop him, to beg him not to go, but she only smiled sadly. ”Bye then. Be careful. I want you back in one piece, if possible.”

             He smiled and smoothed her hair back. Then he climbed out the window. She watched him make his way down, and then he was gone. She curled up in her lonely bed and cried herself to sleep.

 

They had half a dozen encounters during her two years on Thessia. Each time Garrus could only stay for one or two days, and every time he left his absence was like an open wound that took longer and longer to close. But there was no trouble from the people Garrus was involved with, so when the attack came it took Lea by surprise.

                They had planned it well. She had said her good-byes to friends and colleagues and boarded the passenger-liner Sharblu departing for the Citadel. After the first mass relay jump the ship was surrounded by mercenary ships and boarded. Lea was as frightened as all the other passengers, but had no idea that the ambush was meant for her until her name was broadcast on the passenger-deck audio system.

               ”Doctor Lea Reed, we know you’re on board this ship. We will shoot one person every ten minutes until you give yourself up or someone turns you in.”

                 She was incredulous. What did they want with her? She wasn’t important. Her research did have some military applications, but nothing worth kidnapping her for.          She considered her options. No way off the craft, she was unarmed, the pistol that Garrus had given her was safely stowed in her luggage. Not that she would even dream of taking the mercenaries on and winning, she was no soldier. She had no idea how many of them were on board. She could try to hide, but they would find her eventually, and who knew how many innocent people would get killed because of it. Nothing for it, then. She got up slowly and raised her hands above her head, trying to minimize the chance of getting shot by accident. The mercs wore opaque helmets and heavy armour. She could see the blue flicker of shields around them. Immediately she had six assault rifles pointed at her.

               ”I am Lea Reed.” She was proud that she kept her voice from shaking.

                Rough hands grabbed her and cuffed her hands behind her back.  One of the mercs approached, probably the leader, and grabbed her by the arm. Another one produced a mobile camera and started filming.

                 The merc started speaking. ”Archangel, this message is for you. We know you escaped Omega, but we have unfinished business. If you want to save your woman, you’ll come to the coordinates given. We will exchange her life for yours. You have one standard week.” He ejected the disc  and threw it to one of his men. ”Broadcast it to all of the major news stations.” He looked at Lea. ”You better hope your boyfriend comes through. If he doesn’t show, I’ll take it out on you instead.”

           Lea tried to puzzle it out as they dragged her to the airlock. Archangel, the Avenger of Omega? The vigilante who had taken out a number of the criminals who used Omega as a base? Oh no. So that’s what Garrus had been doing the last two years. It made a terrible kind of sense. That’s why he had been so careful. Despite all his precautions, someone had found out.  They were going to use her to get to him.  She wouldn’t let him walk into a trap for her. She’d rather die. She began to struggle in earnest and the merc leader laughed.

               ”Maybe this is the right one after all, she's got spirit. Drug her.”

                 Lea felt the hiss of a dermspray on her neck, and the world turned upside-down and dissolved into blackness.

 

Lea woke in a small storage room. Her hands were still cuffed behind her back and her left arm was numb. She turned on her right side and tried to shake the arm, pumping her hand into a fist to get the blood flowing. To her relief she felt the pins-and-needles prickle in her fingers. No nerve damage. Her feet were unbound, and after a few tries she could get up. She had a pounding headache and felt nauseated, but otherwise she was uninjured.

              She looked around the small room. It was maybe two meters by one meter. She couldn’t see a monitoring device. The door was locked, as she expected. Probably a guard on the other side. There were some lightweight shipping crates in one corner. Empty and too light to make a good weapon. The only good thing was that the room was clearly not meant to hold prisoners. Maybe she was on a stolen ship or still on Thessia? She pressed her cheek to the wall and felt the rumble of an FTL drive. Definitely a ship, then. So far she hadn’t been harmed. She was a valuable hostage, until they got Garrus, anyway. She had no illusions that the mercs would honor their bargain.  They would probably have to feed her and give her water soon,though, if they weren’t planning on killing her right away. The thought of water made her notice that her tongue was as dry as the sands of Tuchanka. She felt too sick to be hungry yet. How long had she been out? No way of knowing.

                 She kicked some of the boxes aside and unearthed a ventilation grate. Could she get out that way? It was small,  but big enough for someone her size to crawl through. Maybe it was meant to be accessible for maintenace purposes? The mercs hadn’t been very thorough if they had missed this. She decided to go for it. It seemed stupid to just sit on her ass and wait for her boyfriend to come rescue her.

                 Lea slid down with her back to the grate, and fumbled around with her bound hands. She found the fastenings and snapped the grid open. It came off with a clatter. She waited, her heart pounding. No one came in. She twisted around to look. The grid led into a metallic shaft with wiring running on both sides. There were red safety-lights running the length of the tunnel. Good, she would be able to see where she was going. She slid the grate into the shaft and positioned a crate so that she could hook her leg around it and pull it along with her to cover the opening. There was no way she could get the grate back on with her hands bound. She wriggled into the shaft and struggled to pull the box  after her. It was by no means perfect when she finished, but she was afraid of losing her chance if she tarried too long.

                  It was hard work to push herself along the corridor with her hands bound, but she managed. It felt like she had been wriggling along for ages when she reached another grate. This one had been welded shut. Her heart dropped. Shit.Shit.Shit. There had been a few turns along the tunnel. She’d have to go back. Maybe if she could turn around so her legs were to the grate, she could kick it in? But that would make a lot of noise. She contemplated going back to the storage room, but abandoned that idea. They wanted her? Let them work for it.

                There was a clattering sound coming from the tunnel. Her first thought was that the mercs were coming after her, but then she realized that the sound was coming from the other side of the grate. Before she could wriggle backwards a Quarian in a purple hood came into view. She didn’t look like a merc.

               ”Hello,” she said in a high, warbling voice distorted by the suit. ”Let me guess, are you Doctor Reed?”

               Lea was flabbergasted. ”Yes. How did you know?”

             ”I’m here with Commander Shepard and Garrus. We’ve come to get you,” the Quarian said, studying the grid. ”I’ve hacked throught the security gates, but if I could get you out this way, it would be much easier to pick the mercs off afterwards. I’m Tali’Zorah vas Normandy, call me Tali.”

                Lea tried to process this. ”But I thought Shepard was dead?”

              Tali laughed. ”He came back, apparently. Long story.” She pulled out a small laser torch and started to cut the grid, which emitted a foul-smelling smoke. ”Stand back, so I don’t burn you.”

              She was about halfway through when there was noise from the tunnels behind Lea.

              ”It’s them. They’ve noticed that I’m gone. Go, or they’ll know that you’re here,” Lea whispered. It had been so close. The disappointment was crushing. There was no knowing what they’d do to her for escaping.

             ”Don’t worry, we’ll come for you soon.” Tali started to back away.

              ”Hey, if I don’t make it out, tell Garrus I love him and this wasn’t his fault. Under no circumstance is he to give himself up for me, you hear?” She had to say it, just in case.

               ”I’ll tell him, but there’s no way we’re leaving without you.” 

 

Lea pushed herself away from the grate so that the mercs coming after her wouldn’t notice that it had been tampered with. She watched Tali disappear behind a bend in the tunnel. She tried to comfort herself with the Quarian’s last words. Garrus was coming for her. She tried to focus on that.

                She saw the merc approach along the tunnel. It was very hard to just lie there, especially with how angry the man looked. He probably wasn’t too pleased to be crawling in maintenance tunnels looking for an escaped prisoner. He reached her, grabbed her ankles and tied a rope around them. She didn’t dare struggle.

               ”Okay princess, that was a real stupid thing to do. I’m dragging you out of here and then you’re in for some payback.”

                Lea closed her eyes and let herself be dragged backwards. She had a feeling that it would make things that much worse for her if she resisted. In other circumstances she might have put up a fight, but now that there was the hope of rescue she didn’t want to risk getting beaten unconcious or shot. She needed to be able to move when the time came.  She came out into the light and saw three mercs with assault rifles. She blinked at the sudden brightness.  The merc that had dragged her out was covered in dust, as she was. She sneezed. He unfastened the rope from around her ankles, coiled it, and put it in his pack. He wiped his face on a cloth that one of the others held out.

                        ”You shouldn’t have done that.” Very casually he dragged her into a sitting position and punched her in the face.

                        Lea’s head snapped back and she fell over. She tasted blood. The merc kicked her in the ribs and she felt something break. The pain was awful. Every breath hurt. He pulled her up by the hair and threw her on the boxes. She tried to scramble backwards. Surely one of the others would stop him? The other guards looked mostly bored, one was munching on a protein bar. No help was forthcoming.

                    ”Now, I think it’s time to find out what Archangel sees in you.” He came towards her, his intention clear.

                   This Lea wasn’t going to allow. He had left her legs unbound. She could use that. She waited until he was close enough and aimed a kick at his face with all the strength she had. His nose broke with a crunch, and he stumbled back, cursing. Then he rushed at her with murder in his eyes.  Finally his two buddies stopped him.

               ”Don’t damage the merchandise. You know what the Captain said,” one of the mercs said.

               The other one tightened his grip and said: ”After we got Archangel, you do what you want with her. And anyway, I’d wait, just in case. If the job goes sour, I don’t wanna think about what Archangel will do to anyone who touched his girl.”

               The merc twisted out of their grasp and pressed a cloth to his bleeding nose. ”Fine. I need to put a coolpak on this anyway.”  He turned to Lea. ”But this ain’t over. Tie her up, right and proper this time, and plug up that grate. I ain’t crawling in there after her again.” He marched out.

              The other two seemed more amenable. They even let Lea use the toilet, which was a relief, and left her a few protein bars and a bottle of water. When she was brought back to the cell, the grate had been welded shut. She was left alone. She contemplated the food and drink and with a massive amount of willpower left them where they were. They might be drugged and she couldn’t afford to fall unconscious, not with Garrus coming and especially not with that bastard whose nose she broke out for revenge. She leaned against the wall and tried to get some rest. Her cheek and the broken ribs throbbed, not making it easy. Nothing else to do but wait.

 

After what seemed like hours one of the mercs came in. He picked her up and her her over his shoulder like a sack of pyjak chow.  With her hands and feet bound there wasn’t much she could do. He walked through the corridors and went through multiple checkpoints. Klaxons were blaring and red lights flashed. It looked like the mercs knew they had company. At last they came to a larger room, which looked like a command center. There were consoles everywhere, manned by at least a dozen men. More guarded the door. The merc dropped her into a chair in the back. The merc leader was striding back and forth in front of the viewscreen. He looked worried. That was good.

            One of the technicians spoke up. ”They’re through the final checkpoint. Hundred and five dead so far. They even took out the Atlas.”

            ”Damn it. We’ll make our stand here. Only one way in.” The leader motioned one of he guards in Lea’s direction. ”Keep a gun on her at all times. She’s the only bargaining chip we have. ”

            She could feel the tension in the air as they waited. She let her gaze wander. There were lots of the same kind of utility grates that she had escaped through all around the room. A few were at floor level, and two were up on the ceiling.  She noticed a soft glow on one of the ceiling ones and then the grate opened soundlessly. She saw Garrus, holding a sniper rifle. He held a finger to his lips. Her heart began to pound fiercely.  None of the mercs had noticed, they were too busy watching the door.  Garrus pointed at the console a few meters to her right and motioned towards it. She thought that he wanted her to move behind it.

             Another grate to the back of the room was smoking a bit. Garrus held up three fingers in a countdown, folding them down one by one. When he got to zero, the grate to the back of the room burst open and a combat drone floated out.  All the mercs turned towards it and fired. Some sprang for cover. At the same moment, the merc who was watching Lea turned. His head exploded. Garrus had said that he liked a good headshot. Lea threw herself towards the console and wriggled behind it. She felt bullets hit the console, but it was sturdy enough to withstand them.

               She looked at the dead guard. It had been the same one that had gotten her from the cell. Could he have the keys to the cuffs? His leg was sticking out, within reach. She locked her bound feet around his ankle and pulled.  When she got far enough that his omnitool was behind the console, she used the blade to cut the rope around her legs. Then she turned around, unfastened his pack, and dumped the contents on the floor. No key. Damn it. She peeked over the console, and saw Tali’s purple hood flash in a recess next to the grate where the drone had come from. She was in the motion of setting up another drone. Garrus had dropped down and was using an assault rifle to devastating effect. Lea had never seen him in action before, and she could now see why the name Archangel caused fearful whispers on Omega.  There was no mercy in his eyes, and the lazy grace he had remained with him in battle. He looked like the fierce predators that had been his ancestors, enjoying the kill. Shepard was right beside him, locked in hand-to-hand combat with the merc leader.  The floor was littered with bodies

            A bullet hit the wall right above her head. She turned to look where it had come from. A merc was coming towards her. His helmet was cracked and she saw the mean, angry eyes of the man whose nose she had broken. He lifted his rifle and took aim. This time he wouldn’t miss. There was no cover, nowhere for her to escape. It was hopeless. Then Lea remembered the dead guard. She dove on top of him just as the gun went off. The bullets slammed into the dead guard’s shields. It had worked! She looked up to see the man running towards her, firing as he came.  The shield wavered, it wouldn’t hold for long. Lea pulled at the cuffs uselessly. Then she noticed the grenades on the guard’s belt. She didn’t think, she just rolled over until she could reach one, pulled it from its case, praying that would cause it to activate,  and rolled it towards the merc. Two bullets hit her leg, but she hardly had time to register the impact before the grenade went off.  The blast threw her against the wall, even though the shield took some of it. She felt a sharp pain in her left side and coughed up bloody foam. The doctor in her noted dispassionately that the broken rib had probably puctured her lung. She  turned to look at her opponent. The merc lay dead, his body scorched black. The stench of burning flesh filled the air. It was the first time she had killed someone. It didn’t matter that it was a merc, or that he would have killed her. She was a doctor, trained to heal, not to kill. She spat up more blood and vomited.

             Then the fight was over. She didn’t hear any more gunshots. She lay on her side, staring at the wall, fighting to breathe. Bloody bubbles formed on her lips with each breath. Hemopneumothorax, the inner doctor whisped. Her right leg felt numb, and something warm and wet ran down her leg.

            ”Lea?” she heard Garrus call. Footsteps approached.

             ”Garrus?” she gurgled. It was hardly even a whisper. She didn’t have the breath to spare. 

              Then he was there and suddenly she was safe in his arms again.  ”Lea, are you hurt?” He ran his hands over her, checking for injuries. She  gasped in pain when he touched her broken ribs. He lifted her shirt and gently spread medi-gel on the injury, frowning, and then tended to her leg. He lifted her in his arms, very carefully. ”She’s badly hurt, we need to get her to medbay. Let’s get out of here.”

              The concerned faces of Shepard and Tali swam into view. Why were they spinning around so fast? Lea tried to blink, but it didn’t help. Their voices muddled together into a cacophony of sound, she couldn’t understand what they said, but Garrus’ calm tones rose out of it like a familiar tune in a strange symphony, and she was reassured. She rested her bruised cheek against the cool metal of his armour and let him carry her away.

 

The first few days in the medbay leaked together, dreams blending into reality. She drifted in and out of consciousness, with hazy impressions of a tube being inserted in her chest, operations, faces wearing surgical masks. When the drugs wore off she found Commander Shepard sitting by her bed.

            She tried to speak, but her throat was too dry. Shepard held a glass with a straw to her lips and she sipped carefully. Water had never tasted so good. ”Where am I?”  she asked.

            ”You’re on the Normandy, well, the new Normandy. You got banged up pretty bad back there, a collapsed lung, a few bullets to your right leg, and a concussion. I’ll let Doctor Chakwas give you the details. She tells me that you’re out of danger.” He kept his voice low. ”I finally convinced Garrus to take a rest, he’s sleeping in the other room. He hasn’t left your side since we got here, it’s been driving the doctor up the wall. I promised to stay with you until he returns.”

            ”That’s very kind of you.” Lea coughed, and felt a pain in her left side as the tube pressed against her lung. The fluid level in the drainage tube went up and down with the rythm of her breathing.  She took short, shallow breaths and the uncomfortable feeling lessened.

            ”How are you feeling?” Shepard asked.

            Lea paused to consider. The chest tube bothered her, and her right thigh felt very tender. ”Not too bad. I’m just grateful to be alive.” She looked at him. ”You and Tali risked your lives to get me out of there. I knew Garrus would come, but if he had been on his own, we’d probably both be dead now. Thank you.”

            Shepard took her hand in his. ”Don’t mention it. Of course we came. Garrus would do the same for us.”

            ”You’re a good friend to him.”

            ”As he is to me.”

            Lea hesitated for a bit. ”I don’t want to be inconsiderate, but I have to ask. What happened to you? The last I heard was that you were dead.”

            Shepard’s jaw tightened and suddenly he looked older. ”It’s a long story, but the truth is, even I don’t know the whole of it. You know the pro-human organization Cerberus?”

            She nodded.

            ”They’re more powerful than anyone knows. They…resurrected me, brought me back, for their own reasons. They tell me that I’m me, not some clone, but I wonder, every day.” He looked at the door.”Garrus is the only one who doesn’t look at me like I’m some abomination. I wish I had his certainty.”

            She squeezed his hand. ”Whatever else you are, you’re a good man, Commander.”

            ”Thank you, Doctor Reed. I’ll go wake Garrus now, he’ll be anxious to see you.”

            ”Thank you for everything, Commander. Please thank Tali for me, too.”

            ”I will.”

             Soon the Turian entered, and to her embarrassment she burst into tears at the sight of him. He gathered her into his arms as best as he could without disconnecting the tubes. She clung to him and over his shoulder, saw Shepard discreetly leave.

 

After a while the sobbing stopped and she regained her equilibrium. Then she looked at Garrus, really looked at him for the first time since the rescue. She hadn’t noticed in the firefight, but something had happened to him. His right mandible was almost gone and shiny scar tissue covered the right side of his face. Her professional eye also registered signs of an artificial graft and cybernetics. The scarring continued down his neck. She couldn’t see how far it extended on his torso. She lifted her hand to touch it, and he let her, with a pained expression on his face.

            ”What happened to you?”  Lea asked.

            ”I pissed off the Blue Suns one time too many. They got out the big guns, fired missiles at me, I forgot to duck. I don’t remember much after that. Shepard got me here and they patched me up. Well, mostly.” He seemed self-conscious.

            ”Hey, it suits you, makes you look dangerous.” She could see that this was the right tact to take, as he smiled.

            ”Well, what do you know, Shepard was right, chicks do dig scars.”

            ”Anyway, we make a really great-looking couple right now, I don’t know which one of us is more banged up. I don’t think my own mother would recognize me with all these bruises.”

            ”Well Doc, you’re always beautiful to me. But maybe this isn’t the time to take those anniversary holos.”

            ”Maybe you’re right. But seriously, thanks for getting me out of there.”

            The pained expression returned. ”It was my fault that you were there in the first place. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Maybe if I had been more careful…”

            ”You did everything you could. Don’t blame yourself. I’ll be fine, eventually.” She took his hand. ”You know what got me though it? You. I knew you’d come for me.”

            ”Always, Doc. Through hell and back, if need be.”

 

 

By the time they reached the Citadel, Lea was up on her feet and hobbling around the medbay. Garrus helped her into a taxi and they flew to her new quarters. They proved to be much the same as her old ones, and as the passenger liner had already reached the Citadel, her things had  arrived in perfect condition, unlike their owner.  After unpacking a few necessities she felt tolerably at home.

            Garrus watched her for a while from the sofa, and on her next pass, pulled her down next to him. ”Now you need to take it easy. Remember that you’re still a convalescent.”

            She gave in. ”Fine, I’ll rest for a bit. ”

            ”Lea, we need to talk about what happened. I don’t know if you’ll be safe here. Have you thought any more about returning to Earth, or one of the human colonies?”

            ”Look, we’ve been through this. I have a position waiting for me at Huerta Memorial. I’m staying.”

            ”I hope that no one else tries the same thing. A shipful of dead mercs might discourage others from going after Archangel, but nothing’s certain. I pissed off pretty much everyone on Omega.”

            ”I know you feel bad about what happened, but it wasn’t your fault. If I run, it’s like they’ve won. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder and jumping at shadows. I’m not stupid, I’ll keep up with the combat training and keep the pistol on me when I’m not at work, but that will have to do. And with the Collectors snapping up whole planets who knows how safe any of the colonies would be? I’d rather take my chances with the mercs.” Her leg hurt and she was irritable.

            ”You know I hate leaving you like this, I want to stay, but Shepard needs me on the Normandy. We have to stop the Collectors.”

            ”Yes, of course. Shepard needs you. He crooks his finger and you come running. Has it occurred to you that I need you too?” She was shouting.

            He looked uncomfortable. ”Of course it has. It’s killing me to leave you like this, but the fate of whole planets is riding on this. I have to go.”

            ”Yes, fine, go then. Go save the universe! Go to Shepard, to whatever hell he drags you into next, if you’re so eager to die for him.” She pulled away from him and crossed her arms.

            He rose and walked across the room. ”Lea…” he said in a pleading voice.

            She turned away and fixed her gaze to the opposite wall. She heard the door open and close. He had gone.

 

Lea regretted her outburst almost immediately, but she could see the reasons for it. It was two years worth of frustration that had erupted at a moment of weakness. Maybe it was good that she had gotten it out, it would have happened sooner or later. She felt lighter, like a heavy pack that she hadn’t known she had been carrying had been lifted from her shoulders.

                  She could admit to herself that she resented Garrus’ loyalty to Shepard a bit. She was tired of coming second on his list of priorities. It was true that if she hadn’t become involved with Garrus, or even if he had kept his job at C-SEC, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt. But it was also true that Garrus hadn’t had any control over her kidnapping and he had rescued her and Shepard had helped. She knew that serving and fighting together often forged a special kind of bond, something that she would never experience. She could never break that bond, and even if she did, she would be taking away Garrus’ best friend. If she looked at it objectively she saw that Garrus was helping Shepard not just because he was loyal to him, but because Shepard was probably their best hope for stopping the Collectors, and in the end, the Reapers. If they didn’t succeed, every civilization in the galaxy would be doomed and everyone that Garrus loved with it. If she had the skills to help, she would probably be doing the same thing. The question was, whether or not Garrus was worth it, all the danger and the pain. Now that was a no-brainer.

                  She tried to contact  Garrus on the Normandy, but it had already left the Citadel, so she had to send a message. She pored over her terminal for a long time, but in the end, she simply wrote:

           Garrus

          I’m sorry. I love you.

           Lea

 

Garrus was off-station for weeks, but in spite of that his presence was strongly felt. Every time Lea left her apartment there seemed to be a C-SEC officer around, and they came to the hospital as well, making the patients nervous. They tried to be subtle about it but after being kidnapped Lea had become more sensitive to her surroundings and saw that she was being discreetly followed. Garrus had called in a few favors, it seemed.

            A few days later an unmarked box arrived for her. Inside was a set of black infiltrator armour with a long-lasting combat cloak and instructions on how to use it. Under it were schematics of the Citadel’s maintenance tunnels with routes drawn on them that showed how one could get to the docks from the hospital and her quarters without going out in the open. It was the strangest gift Lea had ever gotten from a boyfriend. Most men sent flowers. Garrus, ever the romantic.

            The atmosphere on the Citadel grew more and more anxious. There were whispers of more attacks, entire colonies gone missing. People cancelled trips that they had booked months ago. Some had taken to wearing combat armour to do their shopping and the other banal tasks of daily living. The hospital was flooded with nervous cases, even a few psychoses triggered by lack of sleep. Drug use was ubiquitous. And always, in the middle of it all, was Shepard. Desperate people needed hope, and so they grabbed what they could. It was almost a cult, Shepard the Saviour.

             Lea handled it all by upping her exercise regime, sometimes running twice a day, sometimes practicing punches in the gym. She liked running more, maybe for the perverse pleasure of seeing the C-SEC officer in charge of keeping an eye on her try to keep up.

               On top of everything else, she still had regular nightmares about the merc she had killed. She woke up screaming, drenched in sweat, with the smell of burning flesh in her nostrils. It had gotten a little better, when she had started talking to Sam about it. She was a good listener, and Lea had the psychological block of all health care professionals about seeking councelling. She was a doctor, for goodness’ sake! She was supposed to be invulnerable. And even now, mental illness carried a stigma that could hurt her career if it became public knowledge. So she did what everyone else was doing, and went on with her routine as best she could.

 

Things were at their worst when Garrus showed up. Another colony taken. C-SEC had advised everyone to stay home because of rioting in the Presidium. Lea was in her quarters, watching a newsfeed when he came in. He looked tired and unsure of his welcome. They hadn’t seen each other since the argument, even though there had been a few messages sent back and forth.

            Lea went to him and embraced him. After a moment he put his arms around her and relaxed. At the same time, they both said: ”I’m sorry,” which started Lea laughing.

            ”Garrus, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have said the things I said. I know what you and Shepard are doing is important and I want to support you. It’s just hard that you’re gone so much.”

            He smoothed a stray strand of hair back from her face. ”No, I’m sorry. You were injured, I should have stayed with you. Shepard could have spared me for a few days.”

            They sat on the sofa and he continued: ”Look, you know things are bad out there. There’s a war coming.” He paused. ”Shepard has a plan. There’s a Collector base and we found a way to get there. We’re going to blow the damn thing up. I don’t know what will happen. Everyone going into this knows that it’s probably suicide, but if it works, it’ll be worth it. I didn’t want to leave things like this between us, in case… Well, you know.”

            Lea took a few moments to process this. This was what she had been afraid of the whole time. Fear coiled around her heart like an icy serpent. ”Hey, Shepard’s gotten you this far, maybe he’ll get you out of there in one piece too.”

            ”Maybe. But there’s something I wanted to ask you before I go. This probably isn’t the best time for this, but I don’t know if I’ll get another chance.” He took both of her hands in his. ”Lea Reed, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, however short it might prove to be. Will you be my bondmate?”

            Lea was caught off guard. What was this? ”I love you too, Garrus. What do you mean by bondmate, are you asking me to marry you?”

            ”Essentially, yes. You ready to be a one Turian kind of woman?”

             He looked so vulnerable that she couldn’t take it anymore. ”Of course I am. Yes, I’ll bond with you.”

             This led to all kinds of pleasurable activities that caused Lea to lose two vases and a coffee-table, but funnily enough she didn’t care. Later, when she was curled next to him in bed, she thought to ask: ”Is there some kind of bonding ceremony, with Turians?”

              He grinned. ”Well, no ceremony, but Turians usually get bonding tattoos to show they’re taken. Very tasteful, they go here and here.” He traced a design on her cheeks and forehead with his finger. His eyes sparkled with mischief.

                She sat up abruptly. ”Garrus, honey, I love you, but I’m not getting tattoos that cover half my face.”

                 ”Yes, I figured. So, I got you this.” He fumbled around until he found his pack and pulled out a velvet box. He handed it to her.

                 She opened it and a simple silver ring fell out. It was covered with spiky blue designs that resembled the tattoos on Garrus’ face.”It’s beautiful.”

                ”I got a jeweller to etch the tattoo design onto it. I heard that humans wear a ring to signal marriage, so how about you wear that and I get the tattoos?”

                 ”Perfect.” She slipped the ring on. ”So, have you heard about a human tradition called the honeymoon?”

                ”No, what is it?”

                 ”Oh, you’ll find out. We can start right now.”

 

Lea watched the Normandy leave from a balcony overlooking the docking bay. The ring felt heavy and cool on her finger. The oily, metal stink of the docks that usually smelled like adventure to her was ruined forever. She wondered how many more times she would have to watch Garrus go to battle, maybe to his death. It wasn’t getting any easier. She tried to reassure herself, he was more than capable of taking care of himself. He would be accompanied by a team of exceptional fighters, hell, Shepard was practically a living legend. It didn’t work. The nauseating, restless feeling that she got when waiting for something  unpleasant to happen was back. It felt like a swarm of beetles chewing up her insides, crawling under her skin. She couldn’t stand still anymore. She decided to go to Huerta Memorial and volunteer for a double-shift. That would take her mind of it. Maybe a run afterwards. Or getting gloriously drunk might do the job. Either way, she would know in twenty-four hours. It wasn’t that long, really. She knew it would feel like forever.

 

Lea stayed at the hospital after her shift ended, doing some paperwork. She needed to be around people, the thought of going home to her empty quarters was more than she could bear. She found it almost impossible to concentrate. She stared at the screen and realised that she was dictating the same patient’s discharge papers for the third time. Maybe it was time to call it a day. Who was she kidding, her mind wasn’t on the job, and when that happened, it was better to stop before someone got hurt.

            She heard the sound of someone clearing their throat and spun around in her chair. It was Garrus. Bruised, bleeding and covered in black goo, but it was him. She let out a scream of pure joy and rushed into his arms. He almost fell over.  Her coat was now stained blue with his blood, not to mention the goo, which smelled like something between rotting fruit and offal, but she didn’t care.

            ”Easy, Doc. That certain that I’d get myself killed, huh?,” he said. ”I’m insulted.”

            She had already grabbed her scanner and was giving him an impromptu exam. He twisted out of her reach.

            ”Hey, enough with the poking and prodding, already. I’m fine, all parts in working order. I’’m just escorting some of our casualties here, didn’t have time to clean up.”

            Regan, one of the nurses on duty, knocked and poked her head in. ”Doctor Reed, 22 trauma cases just arrived, half of them critical, and more are coming in. I’m so sorry to ask, I know you’ve already pulled a double-shift, but could you stay?”

            Lea smiled. Now this was something she could do. Something concrete to help the men and women who had risked their lives on the Normandy. ”Of course. I’ll just grab a fresh coat.”

            Regan smiled gratefully and shoved a portable reader with five charts on it into her hands. ”Start with the spinal fracture, he’s the worst off of this bunch.” She wrinkled her nose and gave Garrus a wide berth when she left the room.

            Lea shrugged out of her coat and pulled on a new one. She looked at the stained coat and threw it into the biological waste disposal. ”I’m needed here, so I’ll see you later. You have a keycard to my quarters, you’d better get in the shower before someone dies from that stench.” She was already studying the first chart. ”Oh, and Garrus?”

            ”Hmm?”

            ”Don’t use the good towels.”

 

The next six months flew by. Lea saw much more of Garrus, even though he spent a lot of time on Palaven. It turned out that his father was quite influential in Turian military circles and he believed his son’s story of the Reapers. Soon Garrus was busy with setting up a task force to protect Palaven from the Reaper invasion. It was a tense time, waiting for a war that was inevitable, knowing that somewhere out there in space, monsters were coming, ancient horrors  that would never stop before all sentient life in the universe was destroyed. Too many politicians chose to turn from the threat, close their eyes from the truth , and no preparations for the war were started.

            When the first attack came and they saw the Batarians fall in days, whole worlds overrun, their populations destroyed or set to work, minds corrupted by the Reapers, even the non-believers shuddered. As more and more worlds fell under attack, every race pulled back, desperate to save their homeworlds.

            Soon after, Earth was hit. Lea had to watch cities where she had lived succumb, overrun by nightmare creatures. A swarm of things nicknamed husks tore a shuttle apart to get at the people inside. A giant bearlike monstrosity with claws the size of machetes ripped a soldier in half. A harvester rounded up a group of screaming school-children. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was when the cities fell silent, one by one, leaving only ominous static on the communications channels. The Terrans on the Citadel gathered in small, silent groups, offering comfort to each other. Everyone had friends or family on Earth, people they had spoken to only days or hours before. It was impossible to imagine them dead, but who could survive that? It felt obscene, going to work, having coffee with friends, doing your laundry, like nothing had happened. Life on the Citadel continued much as before, until the refugees started pouring in. Soon the hospitals were overflowing with casualties. Between work and volunteering to treat the refugees, Lea was busier than ever.

          Soon Palaven was attacked and she knew that Garrus would be right in the middle of it, fighting for his world. Even Turians, a civilization that prided itself on its military strength, were slowly falling.   What chance was there for anyone else? She had almost abandoned hope of ever seeing him again, when a message arrived on her terminal that he was on the Normandy, with Shepard. A small hope awoke in her. Maybe there was a chance after all.

 

 When Cerberus attacked the Citadel Lea was working at Huerta Memorial. They had some warning, when a C-SEC officer called the front desk and told them to seal all the doors. A moment after, he was gunned down by a man in Cerberus armour, who then shot the camera. It was a relatively quiet night, only a few patients were sitting in the lounge. No new casualties had come in today. Not that they had any beds to spare, but the cases already in treatment were relatively stable. The two other doctors were operating, so that left her in charge. She grabbed one of the nurses sitting in shocked silence and told him to initiate lockdown. He rushed to comply.

            Someone touched her arm lightly. She turned to see Thane Krios. She had met him briefly on the Normandy, and when his illness had progressed and he had been admitted to hospital, she had often played a game of chess with him during a quiet night shift. He rarely slept, so it helped to pass the time for both of them, and she enjoyed chatting with him. He often seemed lonely, even though his son was a frequent visitor. She didn’t know much about his past, but as he was using an alias, she figured that there was something there. She knew he was Garrus’ friend, and that was enough for her. No need to pry.

            ”I might be of help, Doctor. We need to destroy the panels to stop Cerberus from overriding them. I don’t see why they would want to attack the hospital, but better to play it safe.” He blinked his liquid black eyes and looked at her inquiringly.

            ”Yes of course. Thank you. No one here has any experience in this kind of thing. Maybe you could go help Nurse Gibbons with that. Any other ideas? ”

            ”I could maybe hack some of the monitors so we can see what is happening.”

            ”OK, great.”

            ”Do we have any weapons, in case they burn through the doors?”

            ”Of course not, this is a hospital. And most of the people here who could use them are unconscious or otherwise incapaciated. I think we’re the only ones here with any weapons training.” Lea paused to consider.”Oh, wait, I do have the heavy pistol Garrus gave me. I promised him to keep it on me at all times after I got attacked. It’s in my locker.”

            ”I assume that you know how to use it?”

            ”Yes, trained by the best.” The burned face of the dead merc flashed across her mind. ”But to be completely honest, I don’t know if I can shoot to kill, if it comes to it. I don’t know if I could live with myself, afterwards.”

            ”It is not an easy thing, to take a life. I suggest you go get the pistol, in any case. I’ll try to get a message through to Shepard. He needs to know what’s happening.”

            ”All right.”

            She rummaged around her locker and found the gun and two thermal clips. Probably too few to make a difference, but she didn’t have any more with her. She loaded the pistol and checked that the safety was on, and shoved it into a back pocket of her coveralls. With the coat over it, it hardly showed.

            She returned to the lounge and saw Thane seated in front of one of the terminals. He was scrolling through security camera footage. She looked over his shoulder. The terminal showed C-SEC headquarters crawling with Cerberus soldiers. She could see bodies in C-SEC uniforms  and wondered if Garrus’  friends were among them. What the hell was going on?

            Thane switched to other feeds. More Cerberus troops.  ”They’re everywhere.” Then he found the feed showing the corridor outside of the hospital. Cerberus soldiers.

             She heard a thud as they beat the door.  ”What could they possibly want here?” she said.

             ”Maybe they’re securing all areas. Or perhaps you have someone in your care that the want,” he said.

              ”Do you think they could be after you?” Lea had to ask.

               He considered it. ”It is possible.”

               ”Then you shouldn’t be here when they burn through those doors.”

              ”Maybe Shepard will get here before they do.”

              ”Let’s hope so.”

 

Hours passed. Most of the staff sat watching the monitor. Some sipped coffee, while others paced nervously. Slowly but surely the  twice-enforced neosteel door was giving in. They could see it glowing red where it was being cut open. Now  they had started hammering it in. As the soldiers strained to force it in, the door screamed like a living thing.

            Thane had hacked a second monitor. He motioned for Lea to come over. ”Look,” he said, pointing at the screen.

            Lea bent to look and saw a group of three soldiers making their way into the station. She recognized the blue-and-black armour immediately. Garrus. Her heart skipped a beat. One of the others was Shepard, but she didn’t recognize the third alien. He distantly resembled the Collectors, but that couldn’t be. A group of Cerberus soldiers appeared on the screen. A brief firefight followed. She watched Garrus drop two men with his sniper rifle, calmly reloading between shots. She didn’t want to look, but couldn’t turn away. Please don’t die, she prayed silently. Then the three from Normandy moved on, out of range of the camera, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.  Thane took her hand and gently forced her fingers open. She hadn’t realized that she had been clenching them. Her nails had drawn blood where they had dug into her palms. He dabbed at them with a cloth.

            ”You care deeply for him.”

            It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway. ”Yes.”

          ”I’ve fought beside him. He is a skilled fighter. Do not worry so much.”

          ”Thank you.”

            Their attention returned to the monitor. A man in black garb, proud posture. Black lenses hiding his eyes. Lea saw three people cowering behind a coffee shop counter, civilians. The man cocked his head, listening. Then he vaulted over the broken window-frame. Unbelievably fast, he closed in on the three men. It was like a horrible dance, one throat slit, another man slammed into the wall, the third, trying to escape, stopped in midstep, with the blade of a sword protruding through his chest. He didn’t have time to scream before he hit the ground, dead. The man continued on his way, Cerberus troops following him. He was heading in the same direction as Shepard’s team.

          Thane’s eyes had narrowed. ”I need to go. They’re walking into a trap.”

           Lea had seen him wheeze as he tried to walk across the ward.  She looked at him incredulously. ”You’re in no condition to…”

         ”I must.”He had already walked over to the door, calmly waiting for the soldiers to break through.

          Lea took the pistol and offered it to him. ”At least take this.”

           He smiled. ”No, you keep it. I won’t need it. You should move everyone into the laboratory, barricade the doors.”

           Lea saw that it was futile to try to talk him out of it, but she tried. In the end, she was forced to help move the patients back. They piled everything that they could think of into a barricade. Lea saw the door give and two Cerberus soldiers enter. As she laboratory doors slid shut, she saw Thane walk forward, the ghost of a smile on his face. It was only a moment until she had called up the view of the patient lounge on a monitor. Five Cerberus soldiers lay dead. She saw Thane pick up a weapon and leave through the ruins of the neosteel door. Had he just killed five men in combat-armour with his bare hands? He could hardly breathe! Who was he, really? In the end, it didn’t matter. She was just glad that he was on Shepard’s side.

 

No more Cerberus soldiers showed up at the hospital. A few tense hours later, a C-SEC officer came to tell them that the danger was past, thanks to Shepard. Because they had fused the door panels, C-SEC had to force the doors open. It was frustrating to see the wounded start to pour in on the monitor, when the staff was trapped behind the fused doors, unable to do anything for them. Finally the doors slid open, and Lea rushed to work. She was assigned to do triage so she saw Thane carried in. His green complexion was paler than usual and he was breathing very rapidly even with the oxygen mask on his face. The medic bringing him in looked grim.

            ”40-year-old Drell male, stabbed in the abdomen. Terminal stage Kepral’s syndrome. Bleeding out despite medi-gel.”

            ”Let’s get him straight to surgery. I know his son, I’ll ask the nurse to call him,” Lea said. She turned to Thane. He was conscious, barely. ”Hang in there, it’s going to be fine.”

            A white lie, sometimes necessary between doctors and patients.

            He looked at her. He knew. ”No…it won’t. But this…is better, a good…death.” He gasped for breath. ”Get…Shepard…if …”

            Lea walked alongside the gurney and took his hand. ”Shh, save your strength. I’ll get him, I promise.” They entered the operating room. She remained with him until his hand slipped from hers as the anesthetic took effect and then left the surgeons to their task.

 

Shepard and Garrus entered, with the alien Lea didn’t know. She finished making notations on a gunshot wound’s chart and handed it over to the nurse. 

            Shepard walked up to her.  He looked like he was steeling himself for the blow he knew was coming. ”How is he?”

            ”He survived the operation, he’s conscious. He suffered severe organ damage and loss of blood, and in his weakened condition… I’m afraid he doesn’t have long. I’m so sorry. He was asking for you before. Kolyat is with him, but go on in.”

            Garrus and the alien sat down in the plastic chairs, looking out of place in their combat gear.

           She sat next to Garrus and squeezed his hand. ”I’m sorry, I know he’s your friend too.”

           He sighed. ”It seems like everybody’s dying. First Morden sacrificed himself, now Thane. But I think Thane would prefer to go down fighting.” He looked at the door. ”It’s hardest on Shepard, though. They were close.”

           The alien next to Garrus looked up with a contemptious  sneer. ”He died in combat. An honourable death. We should move on. You primitives are so emotional.”

           Garrus’ brow wrinkled and his mandibles twitched. ”Shut the hell up. He’s not even dead yet.”

          The alien shrugged and walked over to the window. He didn’t introduce himself to Lea.

          ”Yeah, that’s Javik. We rescued him from Eden Prime. He’s kind of an asshole,” Garrus said.

         ”I’ve never seen anyone like him. What specied is he?”

          ”An ancient Prothean, if you can believe it. Frozen in suspended animation for thousands of years.” He chuckled. ”You should have seen Liara’s face, she was so excited, and then he opened his mouth. I have a running bet going with Shepard on when she’s going to  snap and blow him into tiny little Prothean pieces.”

          Lea had a hard time imagining the sweet-tempered Asari scientist cutting loose in a fit of anger. She suppressed a smile. She realized that the duty nurse was glaring at her, and looking pointedly at the chrono. Time to get back to work. She had just gotten up when Shepard came out of Thane’s room, a look of sorrow on his face.

         He sat down next to Garrus. ”He’s gone. He was at peace, in the end.” His voice was thick.

        ”It was an honourable death,” Garrus said. He rested his hand on Shepard’s shoulder.

          A look of shared grief passed between the two men.

           Lea walked away quietly. Thane was dead, then. She felt regret that he had died, but she also knew what the last stage of Kepral’s syndrome was like. The patients suffocated to death, slowly drowning in their own fluids, while the mind stayed clear to the end. Considering that, this quick death had been a mercy. Thane had probably known that. It wasn’t something you could tell friends or family, in any event.  She left them to mourn their friend in peace.

 

Lea was in her office at the hospital, working on a paper that she had co-authored with an Asari colleague, when something hit the station. The room rocked, and old manuals and files rained on her from the shelves. The chair went out from under her, she fell over and banged her shin on the desk, hard.  As the tremors continued she crawled under the desk, figuring it was the safest place as it was bolted to the floor. The chair rolled into the far corner of the room and crashed to a stop against the wall. The lights flickered and went off. A heartbeat of darkness later, the red emergency-lighting came on.

           The tremors had stopped. Lea waited a moment and ventured out. She walked to the corridor. She  was about to enter the ER, when she heard screaming. Tall, lanky creatures with dead, glowing eyes were pouring into the lounge. They looked red under the emergency lights. She recognized them from the broadcasts. Husks. The things moved fast, and more and more followed. They went for the people, claws ripping into flesh, empty mouths wide open in a silent scream. One of the C-SEC-guards tried to fire, but went down under three of the things. A mother pushed her child back, in a futile attempt to save her. People tried to flee deeper into the ER.

            The duty nurse sat at her desk, paralyzed with fear. Then she came out of it. Her eyes met Lea’s. A dozen more husks rushed into the lounge. They would be on her in a second. The nurse seemed to make up her mind. She started running for the far wall. It was a race she couldn’t win, and even if she got there, where would she go? No way out that way. Then Lea understood. An emergency biohazard button was on that wall. It should be hooked into emergency power. It would seal the ER away from the rest of the hospital. Maybe before those things got  in. Maybe in time to save some people. The nurse was almost there. She smashed the glass and managed to hit the button, even as a husk jumped on her back and tore at her throat. She had done it! The quarantine doors slammed down. Lea jumped back to avoid being crushed.  The door slid down with an echoing thud. 

             She sat down to assess her situation. The station was under attack. There was nothing else on this side of the ER than staff offices. The quarantine doors had closed off the only entry point into the hospital. Probably she wasn’t in any immediate danger, but she couldn’t stay here. The question was, where to go? Then she remembered the infiltrator armour. It might increase her odds of survival. It was in her quarters, that’s where she needed to go. It wasn’t far from the hospital, but she couldn’t go out in the open. She returned to her office and retrieved her bag, with the pistol inside. What else? One of the storerooms was on her side of the doors so she stocked up on medi-gel, pain meds, and a few other things that seemed useful. Her white coat shone in the darkness, making her far too visible. As she shrugged out of it and her diagnostic scanner fell out of the pocket. It still had half the battery left, maybe six hours. She shoved it into her bag as well.

          Now, getting to her quarters. She could do this. Garrus had made her study the schematics over and over, and repeat the path back to him. She walked over to a maintenance grid and pulled it open. The tunnel behind it was pitch black. Great. She went back to her office and found a penlight. Its small beam was feeble, soon swallowed up by the darkness.  Lea really didn’t want to go in the tunnels. What if those things were in there too? The only other option was to stay here and wait for them to find her. No, that really wasn’t an option. She wriggled into the dark shaft and remembered to close the grid after her.

 

It felt like forever, the time that she spent in those tunnels, with a death-grip on her pistol. She froze at every sound. The worst was a space of ten meters where she had to crawl in the roof of a corridor and she heard a scream cut off abruptly and then the sound of something ripping, bones crunching. Something was down there. Chewing on a person. She turned off the penlight and crawled forward as quietly as she could. She tried to concentrate on getting to her destination. Left here, straight for ten meters, right for twenty. She could hear Garrus’ voice in her head, calmly reciting instructions. Would she ever see him again? She wondered where he was. At Shepard’s side, fighting for his life, probably. She closed her eyes and remembered the last time they made love, the feel of his skin, the cinnamon scent of him, and felt calmer. She opened her eyes and found herself  face to face with a husk.

            She couldn’t help it, she screamed. The husk crawled towards her, its claws making a screeching sound on the metal. Its eyes shone white and inhuman in its skeletal face, implants pulsed with a blue light. It bled black ichor from a wound on its left arm. Lea raised her pistol with shaking hands and pulled the trigger. At point-blank range, she couldn’t miss. The gun didn’t fire. Shit, the safety was on. The  husk was amost on her. She fumbled with the safety and finally got it off. The husk’s nails dug into her forearm. She screamed and fired. Its head exploded and the arms jerked convulsively. She shoved it away and wiped bloody bone fragments and brain tissue from her face, shuddering with disgust.           

           The corridor was too narrow to  go around the thing, so she had to crawl over it. It smelled like rotting meat and burnt wiring. Its body was clammy and squished unpleasantly under her hands. Good thing that she had done hours and hours of dissections at university. Bodies didn’t scare her.  This was fine. Just another dead thing. At least that was what she tried to tell herself. Maybe if she thought it hard enough she’d believe it.

           Finally she reached the end of the tunnel. She could see the door of her apartment complex through the grid. It had been ripped open by something. She wondered if the locks still worked. The building had prepared for power outages, the emergency generator should be able to power the electronic locks for a time. Without power, the doors would unlock, as a safety feature, to avoid anyone being trapped in an emergency. Either way, she should be able to get in.

             The street looked deserted. A crashed shuttle burned on the landing pad in front of the building. It would provide some cover. She gathered her nerve and pushed the grid open. It made a loud creaking sound. She froze. When nothing charged at her she crawled out and sprinted for the shuttle. Still nothing jumped at her.The only sound was the crackle-pop of the fire. Not even screams in the distance, anymore. Was everyone dead? The red lighting made her nervous. She ran to the door and entered. Somehow it was reassuring to be home. The familiar walls of the foyer were splattered with blood. It looked black under the emergency-lighting, but she could smell it, a coppery taste in the back of her throat, mixing with the acrid smell of burning from the shuttle. The elevator was still functional, the buttons glowed with a blue light. There was a smeared, bloody handprint on the call button.

           She crossed to the stairs and peered into the gloom. At least there was some lighting, the blue dots that showed the nearest evacuation route. Two stories to go. She climbed slowly, listening.  She heard only her own shallow breaths and and the pounding of her heart. She took the last flight of steps faster. Right before she turned the last corner, something made her stop. There was a sound, a snorting, animal sound.  Something big, breathing. A clicking of claws on hard floor. She peeked around the corner, her heart beating at her ribs like the wings of a bird trying to escape.

             It was enormous. She got the impression of glowing eyes, metallic claws, spines jutting from its back. The face, a mockery of Turian features. Something Krogan about the limbs. She didn’t know what the hell it was but it scared the crap out of her. It was blocking the door to her apartment.  How was she supposed to get past that? She could see that the locks were still functional, they glowed blue as usual. That meant that she’d need a moment to unlock the door, even if she could get to it. That thing would rip her to shreds  if she tried. She had a feeling that shooting it with the pistol would just make it angry.

            Then she had an idea. She snuck down the stairs to the elevator and dug out her medical scanner. She sometimes used it to dictate a patient’s history when she was unable to go to her office. Lots of files there. She turned the volume up and pressed play. Her voice boomed over the speaker. She sent the elevator to the third floor, and pressed every button for the upper floors as well. Hopefully it would lure the thing up. As the doors closed she was glad to hear that the voice was muffled. The last thing she wanted was for that thing to come down to investigate. The elevator was fast, it would reach the third floor much before she reached the second.  She took the stairs two at a time, only slowing down before her own floor. She peeked into the corridor. It was empty. Success! She had her key ready, and she ran for the door and shoved it into the lock. It beeped and opened obligingly. She heard a snarl from behind her and dove inside. She saw the thing coming, bounding along on all fours, the ruins of her scanner hanging from its jaws. The door closed and it crashed against it, but it held. There were a few more thuds and the screech of nails as it attacked the door. She was certain that it could get through in time, but the door would stop it for now.

          Her apartment was just as she had left it that morning. A half-empty cup of coffee on the kitchen counter,  last night’s clothes on the floor where she had let them fall.  She took a moment to catch her breath, then went into the bedroom and pulled the box with the armor  out from under the bed. She took time to change into fresh coveralls and popped into the bathroom. She cleaned the gashes on her arm where the husk had grabbed her and spread some medi-gel on them. She didn’t know how good a sense of smell those creatures had, if they could smell the blood, but no reason to give them any advantages. She put the armour on and tried the combat cloak. Her arm shimmered out of existence. It still worked. She turned it off. No sense in using it in here. She wondered how long the cloak would work without charging. Hours? Days? She had forgotten to ask Garrus.  

             The monster outside scratched at the door. Ok, better be quick. What to take? She added a couple of water bottles and half a dozen protein bars into her pack, as well as all the spare clips for the pistol.  Her stomach growled so she chugged a protein shake and finished the cold cuts from the fridge with a hunk of bread. Everything in there would spoil in a few days if the power didn’t come back on, anyway. She munched on an apple as she regarded her belongings. Nothing much that she couldn’t leave behind. She reached up to grab the book that Garrus had given her. Stupid really, bringing something that heavy and useless, but she couldn’t bear to leave it.

            Now she needed a way out of the apartment. Leaving by the front door would be impossible, unless the thing left. She remembered how Garrus had climbed out of the window on Thessia. That might be the only way out. She went to the window. It was only two stories, but still quite a long drop. What if she twisted an ankle or broke her leg? Those monsters would finish her off in minutes. She studied the wall of the building. No handholds. Maybe if she had a rope or something? In the end she settled on twisting two bedsheets into a crude rope and tied it to the bedpost.  Now she needed to decide where she was going. The docks seemed like a good bet. Perhaps she’d start there? At the last moment she remembered the station schematics and folded them into her pack. She took a deep breath, let the rope out of the window, and activated the cloak. She sat on the windowsill and let her legs hand out. Then she grabbed the makeshift rope tightly and started lowering herself down.

 

Lea spent the next few days crawling around the station’s bowels. Between maintenance tunnels and ventilation shafts she could get almost anywhere. She blessed Garrus for leaving her printed station schematics and not just electronic ones. She didn’t see anyone else. The docks had been crawling with the Reaper creatures and the only ships that she saw were theirs. Probably everyone who had seen them coming had gotten the hell out of the way, and the rest, slaughtered. She slept for a few hours inside a freight container that could be bolted from the inside. When the protein bars ran out she raided a coffee shop on the Presidium for more. She sat behind the counter and had her breakfast. The grid she had come through was open behind her, so she felt fairly confident that she could reach it if there was trouble.

            Then she heard footsteps. She leaned out to look. A man was walking towards her, flanked by two creatures that resembled the one in her apartment complex. There was something strange about his eyes, he looked blind, but from the confidence with which he walked he couldn’t be. Implants? He was in a suit, not armour. Somehow he didn’t look like a prisoner. This could be it, her chance of escape. She turned on the cloak and followed them at a discreet distance.

            After about half an hour, they came into a part of the station that had some power.  Consoles glowed, terminals showed code running down the screen. Most had some of the strange living machinery that the Reapers used fused to them. Maybe it was their command center? They came to a room with a  large window out into space. Lea saw a planet looming on it. What the hell? The Citadel wasn’t an orbital station. Then she recognized the continents. Earth? How could it be possible? The man sat in a chair and gazed at he view. The two beasts sat on their haunches, relaxed. Lea didn’t dare to linger.

She backtracked until the lighting turned red and started to explore the corridors. What she found made her feel sick. The sides of the corridors were piled with bodyparts. Most of it was unrecognizable, but she saw the skull of a Turian here, a severed blue arm that had to have belonged to an Asari there. The stink of blood and excrement was thick in the air, making it hard to breathe.  The corridors seemed to go on and on. At last she saw a white glow coming from a chamber at the end.  Husks crowded into the light. It was some kind of beam. Lea hid behind a mound of the dead and saw Reaper troops walking into the light and disappearing. It seemed like some kind of a transport beam, but where did it go? It felt like too much of a risk to  just walk into it. As she watched, something changed in the bahaviour of the creatures. They seemed restless, agitated. More and more rushed into the light. At last there weren’t any left. She was trying to  make up her mind to run into the beam when she saw  a figure emerge from the light. A man, bloody and limping, clutching a pistol in his hand. As he came closer she recognized him.

            She left her hiding place and remembered to deactivate the cloak. ”Shepard?” she said in a low voice.

            He stopped and looked at her. The look in his eyes was haunted, he looked exhausted, like he would fall down at any moment. ”Doctor Reed, is that you?”

            ”Yes. What the hell is going on?” she asked.

            ”That weapon that we were building to defeat the Reapers? Turns out we need the Citadel to use it. That bastard who runs Cerberus let the Reapers in on the secret and they captured it and moved it into occupied territory. Earth. It’s rigged to go, I’m going to try to activate it. ”He got a hopeful look in his eye.”Did you see anyone else get through?”

            ”No, sorry. I just saw lots of Reapers troops go into the beam. But I just got here.”

            ”All right. Look, you need to leave. I don’t know  what will happen when the weapon activates.It could blow the place sky-high. That beam will get you planetside. It’s a war zone, but you’d be better off taking your chances down there than here.” His jaw relaxed. A hint of a smile. ”Garrus was right behind me, could be that he’s still alive. You should go to him.”

            ”Is there anything I can do to help you?”

            ”No, this is something I have to finish by myself. You’re not a soldier, you’ll be more useful on the ground.”

            The subtext being that she’d probably just get in the way. Probably true. ”You’re hurt, let me do something about your injuries.”

            ”There’s no time. Go.”

            Lea pressed some medi-gel ampules and a few clips into his hand.”Take these, at least.”

            ”Thank you.”

            There was something in his eyes, regret, like he thought he wouldn’t be coming back. He touched her shoulder. ”Lea? I know I took him away from you too many times. I’m sorry for it. But we wouldn’t be here without him. I hope you find him. Live. Love. You both deserve that.  He’s been like a brother to me. I wish you every happiness.”

            ”I’ll try.”

            ”Lea? Please tell Tali…Oh, she knows. Now go.”

            ”Good luck.”

            ”You too.”

            She watched him slouch forwards. It seemed to take great effort. He disappeared around the corner. She reactivated the cloak and walked into the beam.

 

Lea stumbled out into chaos. The beam had caused disorientatation and she fell down. The world spun. Gunfire, in short bursts, screams, human and inhuman. Husks and worse everywhere. The city in ruins. It took her a moment to recognize London. She was glad for the combat cloak. There were bodies everywhere. She touched the pulse point on the throat of nearest marine, just in case. Dead.  Shepard had said that Garrus had been right behind him.  She circled the beam, looking for him, becoming more and more desperate. She recklessly crossed a few meters from a husk, but thanks to the cloak it didn’t react.  Then she caught a glint of blue. He was half-buried under debris, but it was Garrus. His face was pale,  eyes closed. She leaned close and felt air stir against her cheek. He was breathing. She felt for a pulse. It was fast, thready. Internal bleeding? Shock? She whispered his name, shook him gently. No response. She looked around. No enemies in the immediate vicinity. She started to shift the debris and when she reached his abdomen the problem became clear. A jagged piece of metal pierced his right side. The ground was wet with blood. God, she wished they were in a medbay. All she had was medi-gel and some gauze. She wasn’t a surgeon, but she knew enough that pulling the fragment out would be risky. It could cause him to bleed out. On the other hand they were surrounded by monsters and if they didn’t get out of there soon, they’d both be dead.

            She opened her pack and got everything ready. Deep breath. Then she pulled the shard out. A gush of blue blood. She poured disinfectant into the wound and he writhed in pain and groaned. Then four units of medi-gel. Then the gauze and dressings. Pressure on the wound. The bleeding lessened and then stopped. She pulled out a dermspray of broad-spectrum antibiotics and one of painkillers and injected him with them. Now all she could do was wait. No blood replacers. No surgeon to operate. She just hoped this would be enough. He’d need proper care later, if he pulled through.

            He opened his eyes, gaze searching.”Is someone there?” he asked weakly.

            The relief was overwhelming. Tears ran down her cheeks. ”It’s me, Lea. I’m using the combat cloak.” She planted a ghostly kiss on his forehead. ”I patched you up best as I could, how do you feel?”

            ”Weak. I don’t think I can walk.” He  patted around until he found her hand and grasped it in his. ”You have to leave me. Go, save yourself.”

            ”I’m not going anywhere, not without you. Someone will come along, help me get you out of here.”

            ”I’m not letting you die here because of me.”

            ”You have no choice in the matter.”

            ”You always were stubborn, Doc.”

            ”A character flaw, I know.”

            That was the moment the combat cloak chose to fail. She flickered into existence. A husk spotted her and started running towards them. Three more joined it. Shit. She raised the pistol. Two shots, both missed. The third one hit, but the husk kept coming.

            Garrus grabbed her arm. ”Prop me up and give me the gun.”

            She got him into a sitting position and popped a new clip into the gun. He took it, his arm shaking a bit. The pistol barked three times. The husks fell. His arm dropped.

            Lea looked at him, eyes wide. ”That was amazing!”

            ”Best marksman on the Citadel, Doc.” He closed his eyes. ”Not to spoil the moment, but you’d better lay me down now, I think I’m going to pass out.” And then he did.

            She shook him. ”Garrus? Garrus!” It was no use, he was out for the count.

            The shots had drawn more husks to them. Lea saw at least ten coming from different directions. Then one of the big, clawed monsters appeared. It roared and ran towards them. This was the end. Nowhere to run. No help coming. She kissed Garrus one final time and whispered: ”I love you.” Her vision blurred with tears. She wiped them away.

         Then she slammed the last clip into the pistol and prepared to go down fighting.

 

Those final moments jumbled together. She managed to drop two husks, then her ammo ran out. The rest were closing in. The huge bearlike thing was only meters away. She closed her eyes, hoping it would be quick. She felt the beast’s fetid breath on her face. Then there was a flash of light, red through her closed eyelids. She waited for fangs to rip into her throat, claws to tear into her flesh. It didn’t happen. She opened her eyes. Everywhere Reaper creatures were falling down. Like someone had pulled the plug. Shepard! He had done it! She saw soldiers come out of cover, staring at the sky in wonder. It was lit up with falling stars, debris, burning in the atmosphere. The white beam was gone. A new green star in the sky. She ran to the nearest soldier. ”Hey! I need your help! I’ve got a casualty who needs moving to a field hospital.”

            He followed her. ”Hey, it’s Vakarian.” His eyes widened. He waved his rifle in the air. ”Ronson, call for a pick-up, we got a fucking war hero here.”

 

A week later Lea lay on a beach near Carmel, California.The sun was setting, painting the sky in magnificent shades of flame. The village behind them was in ruins, but the beach was much as it had been, if you ignored a burned hulk of a Reaper ship in the distance. A toddler was finishing a sandcastle, and a ten-year-old was doing cartwheels in the wet sand. Lea smiled. Life would go on. They would rebuild. She buried her toes into the still-warm sand, and relished the sea-breeze fondling her hair. She inhaled the smell of the sea, a mixture of salt, sun, and seaweed. She brushed some sand off the blanket she was sitting on. It was a ratty old thing, dug out of the rubble, coarse to touch, but adequate.

            She glanced to her left. Some of the others were sitting around a fire, drinking.  She saw Wrex put a comforting arm around Liara. Tali sat alone, staring out to sea. Her face impassive in the encounter suit. Poor thing, the loss of Shepard had hit her hardest of all. She saw Garrus walk up to her. He sat down and they exchanged a few words. He gave her a quick hug. Then he left and worked towards Lea. He was still limping slightly, and favoring his right side. He sat down next to her.

            ”How is she?” Lea asked.

            ”Holding it together, barely. She wants to be alone.”

            ”Let’s give her a moment. She might need a friend soon. Shepard’s last words to me were about her, she was in his thoughts to the end.”

            ”Did you tell her that?”

            ”Yes. Maybe it will help, later. The loss is too near, now.”She could see the pain in Garrus’ eyes when they talked of Shepard. It was never gone for long. He had lost his best friend, so he could understand what Tali was going through better than anyone. She changed the subject. ”I can see why Shepard loved this place. It’s  very peaceful.” Garrus had remembered Shepard talking about a bar on the beach in Carmel. It seemed a good place for an impromptu wake. They had hitched a ride on a supply-shuttle to the west coast. The bar was in ruins, but they had dug out a few undamaged bottles of Turian brandy and tequila and hit the beach. She raised her bottle and clinked it against Garrus’. ”To Shepard. He saved us all.” She drank deep. The alcohol burned going down.

            ”To Shepard. All around great guy, the best friend a Turian could have,” Garrus grinned, ”and the second best shot on the Citadel.” He took a swig of brandy.

            She leaned into him and he put his arm around her. ”So, what do we do now that the Reapers are gone?”

            ”I don’t know. Help put the world back together again, I guess. How about we find out together?”

            ”I’d like that.”

           They watched the sun sink into the waves.

 

                            THE END

 

 

 

 


End file.
